After Saturday's dramatic win with one second to go, the Lancaster Bible College men's soccer team thought they would try another exciting way to win a game - overtime.
Zak Kraehmer scored seven minutes into overtime to give the Chargers a come-from-behind victory over Keystone College, 2-1. Kyle Zook sent a through ball down the left-hand side of the field and Kraehmer chipped it past Keystone goalkeeper Daniel O'Rourke who was charging out.
"I knew I had to play it as early as I could," Kraehmer said of his goal. "He stopped me a little bit before that on a similar play and I knew I had to do something different."
After giving up a goal in the 20th minute, the Chargers did a great job of shutting the Giants' offense down. Though they played defense well, the offense struggled.
"We challenged the guys at halftime to put the team first and not worry about being taken out of the game or worry about their minutes," LBC Head Coach Josh Beers said. “I thought the guys that we challenged had a great second half.”
The Chargers responded by controlling play and just missing on two or three opportunities before Sean Westerlund scored in the 71st minute off a pass from Cory Greiser.
Greiser sped down the left-hand side of the field and crossed it over to a sliding Westerlund who put the ball into the top-right corner of the net.
“This team feeds off of the energy that Sean Westerlund brings,” Beers said.
After each team had an opportunity to win it in the final 19 minutes, the game went to overtime where the Chargers completely dominated.
“I thought this would be one of our tougher games of the season, especially after Saturday's great win,” Beers said. “Keystone is a good team and we were very happy to be down just 1-0 at the half.”
Beers was pleased with the fact the team did not give up and fought through their first half struggles.
“This could have been a let down game for us,” Beers said. “Coming off an improbable win and playing like we did in the first half, I give our guys a lot of credit for finding a way to win. This is a great win to build on.”
After playing five games in eight days, the Chargers (6-5) will have the rest of the week off before hosting Christendom on Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
Notes:
-This was the first-ever meeting between the two teams.
-The Chargers have won four straight games.
-LBC has won three straight games by one goal. The last time they did that was 1999, when they defeated Christendom [2-1], Penn State Harrisburg [1-0] and Valley Forge Christian [3-2].
-LBC holds an all-time record of 9-5 against Christendom.
