Tigers roll into ninth-straight win beating Lindenwood 2-1

-FHSU Sports Information

Fort Hays State University needed a bit of extra time to find its ninth straight win as Maurizio Costa’s corner kick found Michael Cole for the golden goal in a 2-1 overtime win at Lindenwood on Thursday night in St. Charles, Mo. The win pushed 24th-ranked FHSU to 11-3-1 overall and 8-2 in the MIAA, giving the Tigers separation in the standings from Lindenwood, which dropped to 7-6-3 overall and 5-4-1 in the MIAA.

After Mauricio Castorino nearly ended the match right at the beginning of overtime with a shot from midfield that the goalkeeper barely got back to in time to punch over the bar, Maurizio Costa would find Michael Cole on a corner kick from the right corner that went through traffic and found Cole near the back post at the 93:10 mark.

Lindenwood was the agressor early in the match, keeping the Tigers on their heels for a good chunk of the first half. The Lions outshot the Tigers 7-2 in the first half as the teams played to a scoreless tie at the break.

A mistake by the Lions just over 11 minutes into the second half led to the Tigers’ first goal. Mauricio Castorino sprinted to a loose ball that Lindenwood’s last defender did not control, took it off his foot and got a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper, beating him in close low to the right to make it 1-0 in favor of the Tigers.

FHSU was on the verge of wrapping up the match in regulation when Lindenwood’s Andre Hayne gathered a loose ball near the top of the box, turned and fired a shot that found the upper left corner of the net. FHSU goalkeeper Kent Freund had little time to make any adjustment to the sudden strike of the ball that found the net at 84:24.

However, the Tigers picked up their keeper with the overtime goal to keep the longest win streak in program history alive. Freund moved to 10-2-1 on the season between the pipes, setting a new school record for wins by a goalkeeper in a season, pushing past the nine by Jason Babyak last year and Ryan Pakieser in 2011. Freund made six saves on the evening.

Lindenwood goalkeeper Jonathan Newkirk moved to 1-1 on the season with the loss.

The win sets up a huge regional showdown on Sunday (Oct. 26) at 12 pm when the Tigers host Northeastern State in a battle of the top two teams in the MIAA. Northeastern State has already grabbed at least a share of the MIAA regular season title, currently 10-0 in conference play. FHSU enters at 8-2 in the conference. Both teams have just two conference matches remaining.

Northeastern State is currently No. 1 in the Central Region rankings. The first set was released on Wednesday, October 22. Fort Hays State was No. 2 in the rankings. Lindenwood was No. 3, so the win for FHSU was huge to move to 2-0 against Lindenwood this season and gain separation in overall records.