FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The Goshen College men's soccer team became the fifth program in the NAIA to attain 550 match wins in its history on Saturday when the Maple Leafs topped the University of Saint Francis 3-0 at Bishop John D'Arcy Stadium.
Lars Razor opened the scoring in the 15th minute before Lucas Bontreger and Wendo Kisila added insurance goals in the 64th and 90th minutes, respectively, earning the Maple Leafs (5-4-3, 1-2) their first conference win of the season and vaulting the team into a tie for sixth in the Crossroads League standings.
Matias da Fonseca made six saves for the Maple Leafs, who posted their first clean sheet in a Crossroads League match since Oct. 17, 2018 — also a win over Saint Francis.
The Cougars (4-6-2, 0-3) outshot the Maple Leafs 17-16 for the contest, but put fewer than half of their attempts on frame; Bryan Ramirez led the team with six shots. Gabriel Vessely made 8 saves for USF.
The Maple Leafs tested USF's goal with five shots in the first quarter-hour before Razor took the team lead with his fifth goal of the season at the 14:33 mark when he followed a shot from Kristian Gecaj. The Cougars countered that with four shots and five sets of fresh legs over the next 10 minutes, but the team only hit the target twice for the rest of the half and Fonseca made sure neither of those tries went in.
Bontreger's fifth goal of the season, a rebound of a missed penalty kick with 26:16 remaining, put him back into a tie with Razor for the team's scoring lead. The goal was also the 27th of his career, coming within one of 2021 graduate Stuart Aeschliman for the most since 2008.
Kisila scored on an assist from Jonathan Aaron with 57 seconds left in regulation, making Kisila one of five multi-goal scorers this season and giving Aaron his first assist.
Goshen had a 7-4 edge in corner kicks and each team committed nine fouls.
GC's 550th win in program history came on the same day as another milestone, the reunion of the school's 1971 NAIA Area IV championship team. It came in the team's 1,010th match, 131 matches after the school's 500th win at Siena Heights on Aug. 28, 2014.
While Goshen is the winningest program in the Crossroads League, two other schools in the conference have more than 500 wins: Grace College sits at 529 and Spring Arbor University at 521.
The Maple Leafs are idle at midweek before traveling to Bethel on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the team's penultimate road game of the regular season.
All-Time Winningest Programs in NAIA Men's Soccer
List complete through Oct. 2, 2021
1. Judson University (Ill.) – 712 since 1967
2. Westmont College (Calif.) – 672 since 1965
3. Benedictine University (Kan.) – 602 since 1963
4. Lindsey Wilson College (Ky.) – 564 since 1990
5. Goshen College (Ind.) – 550 since 1958
6. University of Rio Grande (Ohio) – 534 since 1983
7. Grace College (Ind.) – 529 since 1966
8. The Master's University (Calif.) – 527 since 1970
9. Spring Arbor University (Mich.) – 521 since 1967
10. Berry College (Ga.) – 520 from 1962-2009
11. Roberts Wesleyan College (N.Y.) – 516 from 1956-2011
