Goshen College

GOSHEN, Ind. - Men's soccer started off a string of home conference matches to close out the season with a tight 1-0 loss to the Huntington Foresters. Overall, the teams were quite evenly matched, with very few shots coming for either end.

The entire first half only saw six shots total — four for the Maple Leafs and two for the Foresters — and possession was traded back and forth fairly equally. 

The turning point finally came in the 60th minute, as Goshen made a few defensive errors on a counterattack, allowing for a textbook cross from Jonathan Ruiz right to the head of Kovan Drenth, who was waiting at the back post. 

Before and after this goal, Matias Labbe was having one of his best matches in goal — his six saves this game including multiple diving deflections and keeping the Leafs within striking distance. This very nearly came to fruition with less than two minutes left in the match, when Martim Alves put a beautiful ball into the mix and GC's header went wide of the post by only a few inches in what very well could have been a tying goal. 

Then, with less than a minute remaining, Goshen was given a red card for a foul on the counterattack. 

Pedro Diegues led the Leafs in shots with four, followed by David Hidalgo Muniain with three and one strike on frame, and Kyle Phillip with two, one of which was on goal. 

Though the result was unfortunate for the Leafs, they made only two substitutions in the match without losing much in terms of energy over the course of the game, pushing until the very end and giving them good reason to keep their heads up as they make their way into the last games of the season. 

The Maple Leafs are back in action on Saturday, Oct. 17 when they will take on the Lancers of Grace College at 6 p.m. back at home once again.