MACOMB,
Ill. - Daniel Lewis scored the first
game-winning goal of his career in the 92nd minute to give Western Illinois a
2-1 win over IPFW in overtime on Saturday, Oct. 9.
The Fighting Leathernecks (3-5-4, 1-1-1 Summit)
overcame an early deficit to pick up their first win in league play and their
first win since a 3-1 victory over Evansville on Sept. 19.
"This was a critical win for us in league
play," said head coach Dr. Eric Johnson. "We've been able to pick up
four points in the league standings and we've kept our postseason fate in our
own hands."
IPFW (2-10, 0-2 Summit) scored first when Andy
Mastellar fired a shot past Leatherneck goalkeeper Andy Ryan on a breakaway in
the 14th minute to give the Mastodons a 1-0 edge. Colin Helmrich picked up the
assist on the play.
The Leathernecks would finally break through when
Darryl Odom found Jonathan Sandoval with a cross in the 55th minute and
Sandoval beat Mastodon goalkeeper Donovan Dowling for the equalizer.
"Jon's goal was just a pure effort-play on his
part," said Johnson. "It was really a fantastic effort and was a big
lift because we had played with very little rhythm in the first half due to
IPFW's defense."
Despite several quality chances, neither side could
find the go-ahead goal before the match moved to overtime, where Western wasted
no time in scoring the game-winner.
At the 91:42 mark of the match, Sandoval found Daniel
Lewis with a low cross into the box and Lewis beat Dowling with a shot to the
far post for the first-game winning goal of his career.
"This win is huge when you consider the
challenge ahead of us in the rest of the league schedule," Lewis said.
"We love playing in front of the home-crowd and wanted to give them a good
performance. Our postseason dreams were on the line today and we knew it was a
must-win situation."
Western Illinois finished the match with a 16 to
eight advantage in shots, including a seven to five edge in shots on goal. The
Leathernecks received nine corner kick opportunities to IPFW's three.
Ryan (3-5-4) made five stops in the contest and
Western's defense held IPFW forward Max Toulette to just two shots on the day.
Toulette had entered the match as league leader in points (13), goals (6) and
shots (43).
