Perfection Denied

Ankeny, IA - On Tuesday the Eagles were on the road playing against the Eagles of Emmaus Bible College (EBC). In their previous meeting this season, the Eagles defeated EBC at home 2-1, so EBC was looking to even the series on their home turf. 

The 1st half was not the Eagles' best performance. EBC started playing the match with something to prove and had more energy than the Eagles. EBC also has a much smaller home field which favored EBC's kick and chase style of play. Because of this, EBC had multiple early chances and in the 14th minute, they took advantage as John Chuyma scored (assisted by Cristian Anderson). Unfortunately, the 1st goal was not enough to kick the Eagles into gear. Less than a minute later, EBC's forward Cristian Anderson (assisted by Edwin Ventura-Magallon) scored again on a header off of a corner kick, pushing EBC's lead to 2-0.  After this, the Eagles began to possess more, but they could not score and the half came to a close with EBC leading 2-0.

In the 2nd half, the Eagles woke up. The energy picked up and they dominated possession as they were able to apply a lot of pressure to EBC's defense. In the 55th minute, forward Chris Barnette scored a header off of a beautiful cross from midfielder James Busenitz closing EBC's lead to 1. The Eagles had numerous great chances after their 1st goal to tie the game but EBC's defense was able to keep from scoring. Despite earning at 2-1 margin in shots (19-8) and earning three times as many corner kick opportunities (9-3), the slow start for the Eagles and their inability to finish off their offensive attacks made the 2 early goals from EBC too much to overcome and they fell to EBC 2-1. 

All good things must end as this loss snaps the Eagles 10 game-win streak and they fall to 10-2-1 (5-1 in MCCC play). On Thursday, the Eagles travel to St. Bonifacius, Minnesota as they take on the Polars from Crown College at 7:30 pm CDT.