GOSHEN, Ind. - In men's soccer's first outing against a ranked opponent this year, they fell to Madonna 3-1 after another intense matchup where the Maple Leafs looked stronger than the Crusaders in several portions of the game. The game also took nearly four hours start to finish due to an inclement weather suspension period.
This result is a notable improvement over last year's result where the Leafs lost 9-0 to Madonna on the road.
Both of the Crusaders' first two goals came within the first minute of returning from stoppage time. Pedro Zucchi picked up the first goal after a pass off the kick off from Fabian Schlechte. Schlechte then got a goal seconds later off the assist from Basile Lozachmeur.
The Leafs answered quickly though, finding their goal less than five minutes later off a nice finish from Kyle Phillip, which makes his first career goal for the Leafs. He was assisted by David Hidalgo Muniáin and Pedro Diegues, which also makes Hidalgo Muniáin's first career assist. He also had a career high shots with three on the night.
There were several yellow cards in the match, including one conflict that resulted in three cards being awarded simultaneously — two to Madonna and one to Goshen.
This was the first yellow for Madonna's Tidiane Diop, but seven minutes later he received a second and was sent off with the red card. This incident also added to the stoppage time, as there was some confusion as to whether he was awarded the previous yellow due to the chaos of the triple card earlier in the match.
The final goal of the night came in the 88th minute from Onishi Haraki, securing the win for the Crusaders and picking up his first goal of the season for Madonna.
Though the Leafs didn't walk away with the victory, they were the dominant team in possession before the stoppage time and only trailed the Crusaders by three shots. The Leafs continue to look dangerous on their set pieces, after several nice kicks from a combination of Martim Alves, Nicholas Whitaker and Diegues.
As home games progress, GC is also looking more comfortable on their home grass, and passing was much sharper in this match up, which helped them to hold that possession advantage for large swathes of the game.
The Leafs are back in action on Wednesday, Sep. 2 at 7:30 p.m. when they take to the road to face the Saints of Holy Cross College.
