HUNTINGTON, Ind. — Ginyce Haywood scored twice in a span of less than two minutes in the second half as Goshen College came back to knock off Huntington University 3-2 on Saturday afternoon in each team's women's soccer conference opener.
The Foresters (4-4-1, 0-1 Crossroads League) opened the scoring on an Audra Klopfenstein goal in the 10th minute. Olivia Knispel added an insurance strike 18 minutes into the second half to make the score 2-0.
In the year and a half since Scott Gloden took over the Maple Leaf women's soccer program, Goshen (5-4-1, 1-0) entered the day winless in the 15 matches in which it had allowed the first goal and the 16 matches in which it had trailed, let alone the 10 matches in which it had a multiple-goal deficit. In three minutes, all of that changed.
Haywood scored her first goal with 15:36 remaining on an through ball from Xenia Isaula, beating a defender inside the box and slotting the shot home pulling the Maple Leafs back within 2-1. After the ensuing kickoff and a throw-in, she she headed in a cross 95 seconds later to level the score at 2.
Less than a minute after that, with 13:06 to play, Janeth Vela corralled a rebound; the shot deflected off a Huntington player and went in, netting Vela her second goal of the week and third of the season to give Goshen a 3-2 lead.
But the match didn't end there: if two and a half minutes had been enough time for Goshen to score three times, surely 13 was enough for Huntington to strike once.
The hosts finished the day with a 21-9 shot advantage, and six of those came in the closing minutes. Millie Adams and Brandi Spear each had two attempts in the final dozen minutes, but Goshen goalkeeper Natalie Thorne came up with three saves to preserve the win. Arguably Huntington's best chance came in the final seconds, when Thorne stopped an attempt from Spear with six seconds left, then the rebound from Adams, as time ran out.
"That was one of the craziest games I have ever been a part of," said Gloden, who won a club national championship during his playing days at the University of Michigan. "Once we broke through for the first goal I knew we would create more chances, but it's hard not to be stunned when we score three times in three minutes."
Thorne finished the day with eight saves: her counterpart, Autumn Demott, made one.
Goshen took seven of the match's 12 corner kicks while Huntington had seven of the 12 fouls. The two teams combined for six corners in the 10 minutes after halftime, as many as in the remaining 80 minutes combined. Only two of the fouls came in the second half.
Spear led all players with five attempts, of which three were on target, followed by four and two respectively from Adams. Haywood took three shots and Bower two for Goshen.
The win marks the first time in a decade that Goshen has started conference play with a win: incidentally, that 2006 campaign also began with a win over Huntington, that one by a 2-0 score at home. The last time GC opened conference play with a road win was 2000.
The Maple Leafs return to the pitch at 7 p.m. Tuesday to visit Bethel College at Morey Field in Mishawaka.
