Late Goal Secures Eagle Win Over Spurgeon

Ankeny, IA - On Friday, the Eagles hosted the Knights from Spurgeon College in front of a rowdy "blackout-themed" home crowd. The game was part of Faith's annual high school tournament, which made for an exciting contest between two evenly matched-teams in front of a capacity crowd.

The 1st half was a back and forth battle with the visiting Knights seeming to have the edge as they created some really good scoring chances. The Eagles' back line stood tall, making some impressive plays to keep the Knights out of the net, and the first half ended with the score knotted at 0-0. 

The 2nd half was much like the 1st half. The Knights came out strong and had some really good chances. Yet again, the defense and goalie Sam Carstensen proved to be strong as they kept the Knights from finishing. After the 60th minute, the Eagles started gaining momentum as Spurgeon quickly tired. Unfortunately, the Eagles had multiple chances that they just were not able to convert. As the clock wound down and only minutes remained, the game looked like it would remain scoreless. 

With less than two minutes to play, Faith forward Chris Barnette had other plans. The game-winning play began when Eagles goalie Sam Carstensen booted a long ball from the top of the box that found the foot of a Knights defender. As the defender attempted to clear the ball, Barnette got a foot on the clear, sending the ball back towards the Knight's goal. Barnette was able to track the ball down and sent a hard cross to forward Josh Forgie who tapped the ball into the back of the net and gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead.

A minute later, the final buzzer sounded and with the help of an all-around team effort and a late goal by Forgie, the Eagles were able to beat the Knights 1-0. This victory allowed the Eagles to extend their win streak to 5 games and improved their overall record to 5-1-1 (3-0 in MCC play). 

The Eagles are back in action at home this Tuesday at 3:30 PM CDT as they take on the Warriors from Union College, whom they defeated earlier this season 5-1.