WICHITA, Kan. – 16 seconds. That's all that stood between the Friends University Falcons and a berth in the KCAC Championship game on Saturday. But Stefan Cvetanovic, who became the NAIA's all-time leading goal scorer earlier in the match, found a way to add to that total following a foul deep in the Falcon zone to square the match at 2-2 at the 89:44 mark of regulation and send the match into overtime.
Following a scoreless first extra session, Victor Crispin scored the eventual game-winner for OKWU just over five minutes into the second overtime period to send the Falcons home in gut-wrenching fashion.
"I am extremely proud of our boys," said Friends men's soccer head coach Bryan Perez. "I saw our group grow so much individually and as a group. There is nothing else we could've done, we left it all on the field. This group is a very special group."
With the match even at 1-1 at the break, Sora Shibata, the Falcons' leading scorer, came through with arguably the biggest goal of his career by scoring off an assist from Futa Kubo to put the Falcons on top at the 69:57 mark.
The opening half saw each team exchange penalty kick goals, with Cventanovic scoring first for the Eagles and Yushin Kitada tying the match for Friends in the 35th minute of the match.
The Falcons were outshot 16-4 overall, but just 6-4 on-goal. Shibata had two shots and two shots-on-goal to lead Friends offensively.
Just Guiting was tremendous all the way through for the Falcons, making three saves and seemingly catching and batting away everything in sight to do his part in limiting the powerful OKWU scoring attack.
Oliver Scott recorded a pair of saves for the Eagles (15-1-3), who survive to face second-seeded Ottawa University in the KCAC championship game Saturday (Nov. 11) at 1 pm.
The Falcons wrap up a fine season at 9-6-5 overall after finishing conference action as the fourth seed at 7-2-4 in the league.
