WINONA LAKE - With a 2-0 win over Spring Arbor on Saturday night, Grace College’s men’s soccer team maintains its spot atop the Crossroads League.
The Lancers (11-2-1, 5-0-1 CL) have a two-point advantage over the Bethel Pilots with three games left. Grace and Bethel will play each other in the final game of the season.
The Lancers have now gone 10-consecutive games without loss.
The Lancers had a fast start to the Saturday night affair, scoring 5:46 into the game. It is the fifth goal this season that Grace has scored within the first ten minutes of a contest.
Daniel Santos Rosa was the goal scorer on Grace’s quick burst. Spring Arbor (7-4-3, 3-3-1 CL) failed to clear the ball on the Grace attack, and Nelu Calcai quickly found Santos Rosa who buried the game’s first goal.
The Cougars, who hadn’t lost to Grace since 2017, didn’t surrender after the opening and matched Grace’s energy through the rest of the half.
In the 17th minute of the first half The Lancer had another dangerous scoring opportunity as Santos Rosa threaded a through ball to Martim Sequeira, but Sequeira’s shot drifted wide of goal.
Sequeira had another chance from 14 yards out, but this time his shot was blocked by a Cougar defender and cleared away.
Spring Arbor’s first shots of the game came back to back in the 31st minute, but neither shot made its way to Matteo Conci.
At the end of the first half, Grace held a 9-3 shot advantage, and the Lancers blanked the Cougars from putting a shot on goal.
Following the script from the first half, the Lancers added to their lead 6:47 into the second stanza.
Josh Cruz looked like he might have a point-blank opportunity but at the last second a Cougars defender tried to sweep the ball away from Cruz, but inadvertently put the ball in the back of the Spring arbor net to push the Lancers’ lead to 2-0.
Following the own goal, the Cougars pressed and forced Conci to make his first save of the game. The senior keeper showed his poise as he calmly settled a bouncing ball to maintain the two-goal advantage.
Grace had a trio of chances in the remainder of the half, but were unable to widen the gap.
The Cougars finished the game with a frenzied attack, but Grace’s defense held strong to preserve the seventh clean sheet victory of the season.
The Lancers finished the game with a 15-11 shot advantage as both squads put three shots on goal. Each team had two corner kicks.
Grace will return to action next Saturday for a road match with Huntington. The Lancers final home game will be on October 28th against Bethel.