COLUMBIA, Ky. – Trailing 1-0 with 12 seconds left on the clock, Tom Moody found a loose ball near the goal and finished it into the back of the net to give Lindsey Wilson College the chance to beat Rio Grande (Ohio) 2-1 in double overtime in the Mid-South Conference Men’s Soccer Championship game on Thursday at Walter S. Reuling Stadium.
Not only did Moody provide the score to send the game into extra time, he backed that up with the winning goal as well, collecting the rebound off of Lwandiso Gonya’s miss in the second overtime for a goal from the left side of the box to give Lindsey Wilson (19-1) the win.
The conference tournament championship is the Blue Raiders’ 12th in 13 seasons. Now their focus switches to winning a 10th NAIA National Championship in Montgomery, Ala., later this month. The field for the 2012 national championship is scheduled to be released on Sunday.
While Thursday night’s comeback will go down as one of the all-time classics at Walter S. Reuling Stadium, it came oh so close to never happening at all.
Rio Grande (16-2-1) took the lead on the game’s first goal in the 63rd minute as Richard Isberner played a cross into the box off his chest, directly on to the foot of Luiz Filho who booted it into the net.
Just seconds after the goal, Lindsey Wilson’s Lebogang Moloto had a shot saved by RedStorm keeper Jack Marchant and then the Blue Raiders didn’t take another shot until Moody’s dramatic boot in the waning seconds of regulation.
Rio Grande led the game in shots 16-10, including a slight 6-5 advantage in shots on goal. In the second half alone, the RedStorm took nine shots compared to the Blue Raiders with two.
Once Moody electrified the crowd with a rare score in the final 15 seconds, it was anybody’s game to win in overtime.
The teams traded shots in the first overtime to no avail, but the offensive intensity went in the direction of Lindsey Wilson in the second 10 minutes.
There were four Blue Raider shots in the second overtime, all three misses by Gonya, before Moody cleaned up the last miss with the winning goal.
Gonya led Lindsey Wilson with three shots, while Lebogang Moloto and Moody each had two attempts on goal. Rio Grande’s Rafael Maccauro took a game-high six shots and four shots on frame.
Marchant finished with three saves and the two goals allowed, while Lindsey Wilson keeper Yuta Nomura claimed five saves and allowed just the one goal.
