The Park University men's soccer team faced off against the MidAmerica Nazarene Pioneers on a warm Tuesday afternoon matchup on Julian Field that doubled as cancer awareness day. Park held a slim 1-0 lead at the halftime break, but two unanswered second half goals saw the Pioneers walk away with the victory.
This loss caused Park to flip spots with the Pioneers in an incredibly tight middle of the pack in the Heart Conference standings. Park now holds a season long record of 7-4-2 and 4-4-1 in conference play. Park currently sits in sixth place in the conference standings while MidAmerica Nazarene used this win to boost themselves to 7-4-4 overall and fifth place in the conference with a 4-3-2 record.
As a reminder, it takes a top four finish in the conference standings to host a quarterfinals match, and Park currently sits a half game back of Clarke University in the four spot. Clarke holds the tiebreaker over the Pirates after a 5-2 victory against Park earlier this season.
The lone goal of the first half came early in the action at the three minute mark when Jacksyn McIntyre delivered a well placed header on a cross from Julian Campos into the right side of the net. The Pirates controlled the pace of play throughout the first half and only allowed the Pioneers to take one shot on goal during the opening frame. Park had a late first half scoring chance, but Luka Andonovski's header was saved at the last minute by Pioneer goalkeeper Lukas Bolzli.
Things took a turn for the worse in the second half for Park, and it started only four minutes in, when Rick Hovinga tracked down a deflected shot from Thomas Giraudo and sprayed the ball by Felipe Ramos Peralta while he was still trying to get back in position after saving Giraudo's shot. Later on at '59 a set shot taken after a Pirates foul resulted in a great set of passes that ended with Hovinga's second goal of the day.
Although there was still plenty of time on the clock, Park could not muster a game tying goal despite several final minute scoring opportunities that came off of a corner kick.
Park ended the match with a nearly identical shot count to MidAmerica Nazarene with fifteen shots and four on goal compared to sixteen shots and six on goal for the Pioneers. Park picked up three individual player yellow cards with MidAmerica Nazarene garnering two of their own. These are important to keep track of as these cards add up towards possible match suspensions late in the season.
With two games left in the regular season, the Pirates will now travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to face off against the Mount Mercy Mustangs on Saturday, October 26. WATCH HERE
Box Score
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