By: After giving up an own goal early on in the match, Illinois College came back to tie and then defeat Monmouth on Wednesday, eliminating the Scots from MWC Tournament contention.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's soccer team continued to defend its home turf in the 2016 season, remaining undefeated at England Stadium with a 2-1 overtime victory over Monmouth College on Wednesday night that eliminated the Scots from Midwest Conference Tournament contention. The Blueboys improved to 4-10-3 (3-5-0 MWC) on the season while Monmouth dropped to 5-10-1 (4-4-0 MWC).
The match got off to a rocky start for Illinois College. With less than five minutes gone, a miscommunication between goalkeeper
Jojo Comstock and the back line resulted in an own goal to give Monmouth the lead. As the half progressed, Monmouth failed to put a shot on frame and IC found the tying goal in the 43rd minute when
Ryan May took a pass from
Bohlt Hamrick and shot from distance. The ball bounced in front of Scots goalkeeper Chase Stroud and then slipped through his gloves after hitting the wet surface, trickling over the goal line to tie the match at 1-1 at the break.
Comstock made three saves in the second half to keep the Blueboys all square with the Scots, while
Brock Chartier had the best effort for IC on the offensive end, dribbling through a crowd of Monmouth defenders and unleashing a strong, dipping shot that required a good save from Stroud.
With only three minutes elapsed in the extra session,
Luke Iraci tracked down a ball on the left wing and crossed into the box.
Alexis Zazueta stood outside the six-yard box completely unmarked and he headed just inside the back post to give Stroud no chance of the save. Zazueta's fourth goal of the season was his team-leading second game-winner of the season.
Illinois College will close the season on Oct. 29 with the Blueboys celebrating Senior Day for
Brock Chartier,
Denpota Furugaki and
Mesfin Lenth. IC meets Cornell College at England Stadium beginning at 1 p.m.
