Maranatha men win in soccer

Monday, November 17, 2008 12:05 PM CST

KISSIMMEE, Fla. - The Maranatha Baptist Bible College men's soccer team defeated Central Christian College of the Bible 3-2 in overtime in the second round of the NCCAA DII National Tournament on Saturday.

During regulation time, every time the Saints scored, the Crusaders answered.

In the first half Michael Flynn opened up the scoring for the Saints in the 14th minute of play to give the Saints the early 1-0 lead. Less than five minutes later, the Crusaders had an extended possession when Stephen White scored on a long-range shot off a pass from Alex Board.

In the second half the Saints broke the tie when Jamie Lowe scored in the 68th minute. A little over five minutes later, Maranatha's Andrew Solarek made a tremendous individual effort to get around two defenders and beat the goalie to the near post with a shot to tie the game at 2-2.

For the overtime period Maranatha coach Jeff Pill made a critical substitution by starting Levi Deiss. In only the third minute of overtime, Deiss beat his defender and made a nice pass to White who buried it in the net with a one-timer. The victory was the Crusaders' first in NCCAA tournament play since 1990.

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“We played one of our best games of the year,” Pill said. “We possessed the ball really well and scored three great goals.”

The Crusaders (10-12), who lost to Providence College 3-0 in the first round of the tournament on Friday, will play in the fifth-place game on today at 1:30 p.m. against Southwestern Christian University.