The Park University men's soccer program had an excellent showing in Atchison, Kan. against the (RV) Ravens of Benedictine College on Wednesday evening, 3-2.  

Despite having a home game originally scheduled at Julian Field and then having to move to Atchison, Kan. due to weather, the Pirates did not let the unfavorable circumstance phase them.

Park and Benedictine are neck and neck in the Heart standings in the five and six spots. With one more game left on the schedule there are five teams with four wins. Park and Benedictine have identical conference records at 4-3-3. Park has climbed to 6-4-3, while Benedictine 8-4-4.

Park has been an October type of team this year, going 4-1-1 in their October matchups.

Benedictine's Diego Acuna got the Ravens on the board first with an early goal at 11:07.

The Pirates benefited in the first half from the wet conditions as the Ravens keeper had two costly mishandlings of the ball.

The first one was a pass that went back to the goalie, but after getting past Noah Reucher, Julian Campos cleaned it up for an easy goal for Park.

Seconds before the end of the half, a high arching ball caught some of the cross bar and part of Reuscher's hands. He was unable to handle it, allowing Francesco Esteban to knock in a second goal for the Pirates to lead, 2-1.

Both teams had 13 shots on the game, but the Pirates finished with one more shot on goal with four compared to Benedictine's three.

Park started to get some good runs down the near sideline in the second half to put additional pressure on the Ravens. In the 67^th minute Wayde Roman did just that with a ball that took him close to the near side post after drawing the defender, he passed it back to a wide open Esteban who fired his second goal of the match. The freshman from Chile now has five goals on the year.

It got interesting down the stretch when Benedictine scored in the 87^th minute by Eliah Froeyland to cut the gap to just one goal at 3-2.

In the end, the Pirates had sound defensive play to capture the win.

Park will have senior day on Saturday, October 28 at Julian Field as they host No. 17 William Penn University at 2:30pm. WATCH HERE
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