After two heart-breaking losses to Misericordia University and Susquehanna University, the Elizabethtown College’s men’s soccer team was in need of a win as they opened Commonwealth Conference play Sept. 29. The Blue Jays proved up to the task and defeated the Arcadia University Knights 3-2 in double overtime.
The first half did not yield much in the way of statistics. Both teams got legitimate chances to score, but it was not until the second half that both offenses picked up the pace. Etown was the first on the board with a goal from junior Kyle Volk. Sophomore Kyle Fowler put a perfect arc on his corner kick and connected with Volk, who headed the ball inside of the right post.
However, the Knights responded quickly. Only two minutes after Volk’s goal, Arcadia’s Alex Wells beat senior goalie Eric Carr after receiving a cross from teammate Zach Todd.
Etown continued the rally with their second goal of the game from junior Zach Lee. This time Volk was credited with an assist when he threw the ball back into play. Once Lee gained possession of the ball, he put it away and put the Blue Jays in the lead.
Once again, the Knights evened the score only a few minutes after the Blue Jays’ last goal. Similar to Etown’s first goal, Arcadia’s Dean Search headed a cross from Nick Morris inside the right post. Despite more shots by both teams, the score remained 2-2 when regulation time expired.
In the first ten minutes of overtime, Etown outshot Arcadia 3-1, but Knights goalie Ryan Lantzy withstood the test and kept his team in the game. The second overtime period commenced, and while spectators thought about the  game ending in a tie, first-year Martin Fevre ended the game with the first goal of his college career.
Fevre, a defender, was bringing the ball up the left side of the field. After dribbling around a couple of Arcadia defenders, Fevre had a wide open look at the goal from about 25 yards out. He pulled back for the shot, and his ball sailed to the upper right hand corner, where it hit the post and bounced into the goal. The Blue Jays’ bench swarmed the field after the goal was scored, celebrating the tough win.
Overall, Etown led Arcadia in shots 21-13, and Carr had four saves compared to Lantzy’s three saves. According to Volk, Etown won because “the team kept possession of the ball a lot and created great opportunities to score goals.”
Fevre agreed that the win was a team effort. “Even though a lot of people congratulated me after the game, I want to emphasize the performance of the whole team, which was perfect,” he said about his game-winning goal.
The Blue Jays face off against Messiah College in the annual Marshmallow Bowl this Saturday at Messiah. Although there is immense pressure to focus on that game, Volk thinks that the team is staying grounded and focusing on playing Hood College first.
“Right now I don’t think that we are looking ahead to the Messiah game yet,” Volk said. “We still have a game on Wednesday against Hood, and we are concentrating on a win for that game first.”