HUNTINGTON - Grace College’s men's soccer team dispatched the Huntington Foresters 3-0 on Saturday night.
With two games left in the regular season, the Lancers (12-2-1, 6-0-1 Crossroads League) hold a two-point lead over Bethel for the top spot in conference.
Grace was dominant early in the Saturday night showdown with Huntington (5-7-4, 2-4-1 CL). The Lancers controlled the pace of play, and held the Fosters without a shot through the first 17 minutes of action.
When Huntington finally was able to try a shot on goal, it took a dramatic effort from Grace goalie Matteo Conci to keep the game even. Conci charged in and made a sliding save on a point-blank shot from the Foresters.
Just minutes after the stellar save from Conci, Grace scored the game's first goal. Jonny Mora crossed a pass into the box that the Huntington keeper misjudged.
Martim Sequeira was the beneficiary of the advantageous scoring chance and confidently buried the goal to give Grace the 1-0 lead midway through the opening half.
After the Lancers’ goal, the rest of the half was a possession battle with the majority of the action taking place in the midfield.
Grace had a 1-0 lead as the second half got underway, but wasted little time in expanding the margin.
Juan Garci was awarded a free kick from well outside the penalty area. Garcia sent a slicing shot towards goal that took a deflection off of a Huntington player and found its way to the back of the net to double Grace’s lead six minutes into the half.
Two minutes later Grace scored again.
Frederik Christmann had a shot on goal that was momentarily saved but the ensuing deflection was scored by Kyle Holwerda who outhustled a Forester defender for the loose ball.
Maxime Bregeon nearly added another tally late in the game but was denied by the Huntington goalie who went full extension to make the save.
Conci saved every shot he faced as the Lancers closed out the 3-0 win.
After full time, Grace was credited with five shots to Huntington’s nine. The Foresters also held a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks.
Conci made seven saves in the victory and picked up his eight clean sheet of the season.
The Lancers will return to action on Wednesday against Goshen for their last roadtrip of the regular season.

Women’s Soccer Blanks Huntington In 1-0 Win
WINONA LAKE - Grace’s women’s soccer team used a first-half goal to defeat Huntington 1-0 on Saturday.
The Lancers controlled the match with an 18-2 shot advantage at 1st Source Bank Field. Grace owned a massive percentage of possession as well, limiting the Foresters to a handful of chances during the match.
Sam Vondersaar had the game-winning moment, finishing an assist from Cassidy Felger in the 22nd minute.
The win also moves Grace into a strong position to secure a spot in the Crossroads League Tournament. Grace has two matches remaining next week, including the home finale on Wednesday versus Goshen at 7 p.m.
As the first half continued, Grace’s hold on the match strengthened. Grace took the first three shot attempts across the opening 15 minutes.
Midway into the half, Grace seemed to be in the driver’s seat. The Lancers’ possession kept the Foresters pinned into their defensive half of the field.
In the 22nd minute, Grace found the breakthrough moment. Felger made a dangerous dribble toward the top of Huntington’s penalty box. After drawing defenders, Felger slipped a pass into the box, connecting with Vondersaar who finished her shot cleanly around the goalkeeper.
The Lancers tried five more shots before halftime and went into halftime with a 1-0 lead. Grace had nine shots in the half, limiting the Foresters to one deep shot attempt from near the midfield stripe.
Grace pressed hard for an insurance goal to begin the second half. The Lancers sent wave after wave of attacks on the Foresters’ end of the field. Gefrorer tried a few shots, one of which was saved.
But the Foresters managed to hold Grace’s goal tally to one, keeping the match alive.
With 16 minutes to play, Lilli Oberhoff shot twice in the span of a minute. Both of her shots seemed to have a chance to score, but each time Huntington’s goalkeeper parried the high shot above the crossbar.
Five minutes later, Felger had a shot blocked after a quick counterattack by Grace.
Grace thought it had a second goal in the closing minutes after a well-worked advance. But Abby Hodkin’s curving shot resulted in a diving save by a fully extended goalkeeper.
The Foresters tried to generate an equalizer, throwing a few long balls into Grace’s penalty box. But Grace’s defending kept the Foresters off the scoreboard for the full 90 minutes.
Sofia Williams only needed to make one save to record the shutout. She was protected by stout defending from Jasmin Slump, Megan DeBoest, Elizabeth Maciejewski and Leah Burke.
Grace had nine more shots to go along with six corner kicks after halftime; the Foresters had one shot and a corner in the final 45 minutes.

Volleyball's Offense Shines In Win
WINONA LAKE - The attack for Grace’s volleyball team sizzled as the Lancers trumped Spring Arbor 3-1 on Saturday.
The Lancers (18-8, 9-6 Crossroads League) racked up 64 kills, setting the season-best mark for kills in a match in just four sets.
Grace’s offense has found an impressive rhythm this week, hitting for 60 kills, 61 kills and 64 kills in successive matches — each match producing a new season-high mark for kills.
Jadyn Ross had a memorable double-double with 13 kills and 28 digs. Alisha Leffring (15 kills) and Katie Swanson (13 kills) also had double-digit kills in Grace’s win.
In the first set, SAU quickly ran off five unanswered points to earn a slight 10-7 edge.
Grace countered with four straight points of its own to regain the lead, and the teams battled tightly until the end.
With the score knotted at 22-22, Swanson produced a kill on the next play. Grace’s defense kept the Cougars (14-14, 7-8 CL) from scoring again as the Lancers pushed ahead to win 25-22.
Neither team attacked very efficiently in the first set; Grace was slightly better with 12 kills, including four kills from Swanson. Ross had 10 digs in the first set alone.
The Cougars wasted little time evening the match. SAU used a pair of late 4-0 spurts to take a 24-16 lead.
Grace did its best to generate a rally, scoring six straight points. Leffring and Swanson combined for five kills during the stretch, but the Cougars squeaked out one more kill to win 25-21.
But Grace’s confidence seemed to grow after the late-set push. The third set was Grace’s largest margin of victory.
The Lancers earned a slight cushion midway into the set and gradually pulled away for the 25-20 victory. Ross was electric with seven kills on 10 attempts.
In the fourth set, Grace committed several early attacking errors to slip into a quick deficit. The Lancers managed to pull back with a 5-1 spurt to tie the score.
The sides traded small runs throughout the middle portion of the set, resulting in a 21-21 deadlock.
But back-to-back kills from Anna Ballengee and Leffring gave Grace the breathing room it needed. The Lancers ended the match 25-22 on another kill from Ross, her 13th of the night.
Ross stuffed the stat sheet with 13 kills, 28 digs, 2 block assists and 1 ace.
Leffring’s 15 kills came on a .325 percentage, and she added two block assists.
Swanson, who was honored for Senior Day before the match, had 13 kills on a .226 percentage.
Livia Tate had 7 kills, 2 solo blocks and 2 block assists, and Ballengee chipped in eight kills and five digs.
Grace’s setters were effective; Riley Owens had 35 assists and 10 digs, and Morgan Syoen had 23 assists, 13 digs and 4 kills.
Liz Schmidt finished the match with 25 digs, and McKenzie Stakely had eight digs.
The Lancers have just one week left in the regular season. Next week, Grace will play at home on Wednesday against No. 2 Indiana Wesleyan before traveling to No. 25 Mt. Vernon Nazarene on Friday and Huntington on Saturday.