By: Laura Chapman
Assistant Sports Information Director
chapmal@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
Photo: Laura Chapman
WASHINGTON, D.C. – It only took the Juniata College men's soccer team five minutes and 28 seconds to get on the board in the Landmark Conference semifinals. From there, the Eagles never looked back, scoring once more in the first half and again just over a minute into the second for a final 3-1 victory over top seeded Catholic University of America in Juniata's first postseason match.
"The guys worked so hard for this all season just to get to where we are," said head coach Dan Dubois. "Now that they've gotten here, there's not guarantee that you get another playoff game at any point. So you have to make the most of it out of this one and try to live each match for the rest of your playoff life. I think they've embraced that. They've bought into it and they did it today. They came in they fought hard for 90 minutes. They did what they had to do to come away with a victory."
Juniata and Catholic met in D.C. less than two weeks ago in the Landmark regular season. On that day the Cardinals defeated the Eagles by a final score of 2-0. Catholic scored its first goal of the match in the fifth minute to down Juniata.
"Every time that this team has suffered a set back this year, they have not only come out and played well the next day, but they've also put it in their brain that that is never going to happen to us again," said Dubois. "When we came here last time, the game went down the way it did. We played well, but unfortunately we were on the short end of it. The guys knew they wanted another shot at it and they were really happy when they got the opportunity to come back out and do it again. We're going to have to wait and see what happens tonight to see if we get another shot at Susquehanna, or if we have to avoid the same kind of thing against Merchant Marine."
Today, the Eagles were the ones jumping out to the early lead. Juniata earned their first corner kick of the match in the sixth minute of play. Freshman Aaron Kulig (Green Lane, Pa./Boyertown) served the ball in and junior Nick Weit (Litiz, Pa./Warwick) headed it home for his fourth goal of the year and the dramatically early 1-0 lead. The Eagles outshot Catholic 6-3 in the first half and in the closing minutes freshman Dani Meyer-Arrivillaga (Durham, N.C./Carolina Friends) served in a cross from the right wing. Junior Nick Stone-Weiss (North Olmsted, Ohio/North Olmsted) was able to slide and beat the Catholic defender marking him to the ball for the eventual game winning goal.
Catholic started to find its legs in the closing minutes of the period. A crossed ball into the Juniata box was headed at the goal and looked like it was sure to score when freshman goalkeeper Jonathan Phillips (Bangor, Pa./Bangor) made a diving save to send the Eagles into halftime still up 2-0.
Juniata continued its pressure, getting the third goal of the game one minute and 12 seconds after the second half whistle. The Eagles earned a free kick in Catholic territory and after a number of headers and failed clearances by Catholic, junior Robby Higgins (Middletown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) pounced on the lose ball and buried it past the Cardinals keeper, notching his fifth goal of the year. Catholic tried to mount a comeback, scoring their lone goal of the match in the 54th minute, and earning a penalty kick with 15 minutes left to play. The free kick was missed wide right and the Eagles held on for the win.
Catholic outshot Juniata 6-3 in the second half to even the total shots in the match at 9-9. The two teams each had three corner kicks and Phillips finished the game with four saves for his eighth win of the season.
"We're still playing really good soccer," said Dubois. "It's the defensive intensity that we've been working on for the whole season. It's kind of the key to everything that we do. They picked up the defensive intensity just a little bit more today. They got stuck in on the tackles they needed to get stuck in on. They made the extra hustle play defensively when they needed to to make the victory happen. We're not doing anything different than we have all year it's just a matter of doing it better. They just did it better today. They beat a very good team. I'm proud of them."
With the win, Juniata advances to the Landmark tournament finals and will face the winner of second seeded Susquehanna University and third seeded U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Saturday, Nov. 9.
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