Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
When Grace College women's soccer coach Mark Sproul listened at the beginning of the season as his team made a goal of a 12-4 regular-season record, he had his doubts.
But not anymore.
Grace College defeated Bethel College 2-0 Tuesday in the final conference game of the season, meaning the Lancers need just one win in their final two games to reach that goal.
"I thought that they were reaching a little high," Sproul said after his team virtually clinched a third-place finish in the Mid Central Conference. "They had to remind me tonight that now we're 11-3."
Grace looked sluggish as the game opened despite the fact that it was senior night. According to Sproul, that was because his Lancers had an emotional game with Goshen last time they were on the field. Grace came away with a 2-1 double overtime win to keep hopes of a third-place finish in the conference alive.
"We knew that pretty much everything had been clinched coming into today," Sproul said. "Home field has been locked down and the only thing that would really change was whether we were third or fourth."
Bethel controlled the field for the first 20 minutes, but slowly Grace began to take over from about the midway point of the first half.
The Lancers outshot the Pilots 10-5 in the opening 45 minutes, but the game went to the half scoreless.
In the second half, Grace had two goals waved off in less than a minute because of hand balls and it seemed to wake the Lancers up.
Grace's all-time goal scoring leader, Eve Arthur, scored the first goal of the game 16 minutes into the second half after controlling a bouncing ball in a mad scramble in front of the goal mouth after a corner kick.
