The Ashland men’s soccer team had a big weekend as they tried to position themselves to host the GLIAC tournament and make a run in the NCAA tournament coming up next month. The Eagles held a slim lead over the Ohio Dominican Panthers, with only one point separating the two teams at the top of the GLIAC standings heading into Friday’s matchup between the two teams at Ferguson Field. The Eagles then closed out the weekend by hosting Urbana. Ashland scored three goals on the weekend and completed two clean sheets, which makes three games in a row that they have shutout the opposing teams.

No. 22 Ohio Dominican

Ashland needed at least a draw to maintain a one point lead over the Panthers atop the GLIAC. By the time the final whistle sounded, the Eagles had done much more than that, shutting down ODU’s attack in a 2-0 victory.

The first half of the game ended scoreless, with the Eagles leading in shots, five to four. With 16 fouls committed in the first half and one yellow card handed out already by referee Ioan Aldea to a Panther player, one could sense that a penalty kick might decide the outcome of the game.

The penalty kick came early in the second half in the 49th minute, as defending GLIAC Men’s Soccer Athlete of the Week Louis Clark was just too much for the ODU defense. He started his run beyond midfield, flying past a few Panther defenders before being chopped down on the left side of the penalty area. Clark dusted the synthetic turf off of his uniform and coolly converted the PK, sliding the ball past Panther keeper Tyler Gleason into the left side of the net for his conference-leading 12th goal of the season.

The game-clincher came in the form of a Mitch Deyhle corner-kick that was headed in at the back post by sophomore Danny Lusheck. The 5’9″ midfielder has scored multiple goals on headers this season.

“Mitch put a nice ball into the box and I just felt like I wanted to score, I just went for it,” Lusheck said. “I got my head to it and put it in the back of the net. It’s all about timing and wanting to get to it and if you just go for it and your timing is all right a lot of times, you’ll get the header. It’s not about your size.”

With just over two minutes to go, one of Lusheck’s appendages almost cost the Eagles their shutout. A hand ball in the box left goalkeeper Justin Nolan with the toughest task in soccer: stopping a penalty kick. His efforts were successful, as Nolan stretched his 5’11” frame to cover the entire right side of the goal and secure a 2-0 victory.

Urbana

Fast-forward to the second overtime of Sunday’s game against an inferior Urbana Blue Knight’s squad. Ashland dominated the proceedings from start to finish, piling up 26 shots, eight of which were saved by goalkeeper William Harvey from England (where was he during the World Cup?).

Ashland’s 27th shot of the game turned out to be the difference maker. With just twenty seconds to go, Ashland brought the ball up the field for what they knew would be their final chance of the game. Louis Clark passed the ball to senior James Livingston, who took two touches before slotting home the game-winner. The shot was Livingston’s eighth of the game.

“I just remember Louis getting the ball and putting the ball in across the box. He flicked in a brilliant ball,” Livingston said. “I’m terrible with my left foot. I just had to take it onto my right. After that, it was just a blur, I just ran off [the field]. Obviously, with twenty seconds left it’s unbelievable. It was like a buzzer-beater. It was just a brilliant feeling.”

The emotional victory was huge for Ashland, as they can’t afford to lose games down the stretch heading into the post-season. Another team that Ashland beat in dramatic fashion (also on a Livingston goal) comes into town Friday in the form of the Tiffin Dragons.

Ashland can clinch home-field advantage for the GLIAC tournament if they take care of business in that game at 4:30 p.m. at Ferguson Field. The Findlay Oilers will then travel into town for a rivalry game that will start at 2 p.m.

“It’s a big weekend for us; The players’ first goal is to win the conference and if we want to win the conference and gain home field advantage, we want to win these games,” Coach Jon Freeman said. “Right now we’re going to focus on Tiffin. I think we’ll be hitting them when they’ll be peaking and hopefully we will be peaking as well. It should be a good game.”