MEN’S SOCCER

The #RV HU men’s soccer team got back on track Saturday afternoon with an inspiring 2-1 come-from-behind win over Taylor at King Stadium.

The first half saw an evenly played contest with Taylor owning a one-shot advantage over their hosts, 5-4, without either team cracking the scoreboard. Thirteen minutes into the second frame, Jhon Alzate lasered a shot off the post that bounced in to put Taylor up 1-0.

The well- executed tag team between Alzate and Luke Holwerda was preceded by Taylor’s quick response off a restart from a call that caught HU off guard. But Lawson and crew didn’t panic, instead they bore down and their effort paid off with back-to-back goals in the final ten minutes.

“This was a fantastic response from our guys in the second half after we went down a goal, a goal that we thought went against the grain,” said Coach Lawson. “I was proud of them for sticking with it and not getting too down.”

The equalizer came in the 79th minute when Noah Stanford ripped a shot on goal that the keeper spilled in front of James Lighton who pounced on it for his first goal in Forester green. Two minutes later, Jordan Morris played a ball into Val De Coninck who laced it into the ceiling for what proved the game-winner.

“We had fantastic energy and effort coming off the bench. We made some adjustments in the last 15 minutes and we really liked what we saw,” said Lawson. “Jordan was great up top with his hold-up play. And it was great to see Val stick with his game and get rewarded with the game-winner.”

The rest, as they say, was history as the Foresters rode out the final nine minutes for their second win over Taylor this season. Huntington finished with 16 shots, seven on frame, to Taylor’s nine, six of which were on target.

Blake Cooke went the distance between the posts for the win. The senior keeper tracked down four saves in the winning effort.

With interruptions because of COVID, the league office made the decision earlier this week to switch back to one division instead of two. With this change, any second round games played between CL schools is considered a non-conference matchup that only counts towards a team’s overall record, not the league’s regular season standings.

As such, today’s win moves Huntington to 5-2-2 overall while Taylor drops to 2-8.  While HU, boasting a 4-1-2 CL record, has played one more CL match than IWU, the two teams are currently sitting atop the league standings with 14 points apiece.

Next up for Lawson and crew is a trip to Indianapolis on Wednesday to take on Marian.