(By Abby Zylstra & Jeff Febus)
Calvin will get a chance to play for an outright MIAA title on Saturday afternoon when the Knights host the Flying Dutchmen of Hope College at 2:00 p.m.
The two long-time rivals are now deadlocked for first place in the MIAA standings after a 5-1 Calvin victory over Tri-State and a 1-0 Hope loss at Kalamazoo Wednesday afternoon.
The MIAA title and an automatic bid to the NCAA III Tournament will be on the line in Saturday's game. A victory will give either team the outright league crown and the MIAA's NCAA III Tournament bid. A tie would create a co-championship between the two schools for the second straight year but would also give Hope (15-4-0 overall, 12-1-0 MIAA) the league's NCAA III Tournament bid based on a head-to-head tie-breaker situation.
In the first meeting of the year between the two teams, Hope claimed a 1-0 victory in Holland on October 12.
Ranked eighth nationally and second in the latest set of NCAA III Great Lakes Regional Rankings, Calvin (17-1-1 overall, 12-1-0 MIAA) led 4-0 at halftime in its victory over Tri-State Wednesday and held control throughout the match.
"It was a good game for our team," said head coach Chris Hughes. "Our guys came to play."
The first goal came at the 6:10 minute mark. Senior Joel Veldhouse [Souix Falls, SD] kicked a corner kick to junior Matt Cosnek [Hopewell, PA]. Cosnek headed the ball into the net.
At the 18:29 minute of play, Veldhouse received a breakaway pass from junior Levi Kool [Holland] to score the second goal of the game and his team-leading 19th of the year.
Cosnek scored his second goal of the game and eighth of the year at the 19:34 minute mark with another header chipped from sophomore Nate Kooi [Lynden, WA}.
Sophomore Phil VanRees [Muskegon] scored his first goal of the season in the 43:37 minute of play with a shot in the box from freshman A.J. Dufendach [Grand Rapids].
The only goal in the second half came from Kool at the 55:16 minute mark off a pass from Cosnek.
Saturday's game between Calvin and Hope will mark the 76th meeting between the two rivals in men's soccer. Calvin leads the all-time series 40-28-7 but Hope has won seven of the last eight meetings.
1 comment:
Calvin walked all over Hope on saturday, beating them one to nothing. The goal came with about three minutes left in the game. While Nate did not score the goal that doesn't mean he was just loafing. Congrats Nate and team. Calvin now is the winner of the league and moves on to turnaments.
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