Three is officially the lucky number of the Saint Louis University men’s soccer team: three goals, three conference championships and a beauty of a game winner from the man who wears No. 3, Jason Cole.
Last weekend, the Billikens secured an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament and earned a first-round bye, winning the Conference USA Tournament over the No. 5-seed Cincinnati Bearcats.
“Cincinnati had an unbelievable weeekend,” said coach Dan Donigan. “They deserved to be [in the championship], but our guys stepped it up when we needed to … it was very, very nerve-wracking, but we got the breaks.”
The championship weekend began with an easy No. 2-seed SLU win over No. 3 Louisville and a huge upset in the semifinal round. Marquette, the No. 1 seed and regular season co-champion, received a first-round bye and faced Cincinnati in the second round of play. Cincy scored in the first half and shutout Marquette until midway through the second half, when the Golden Eagles tied the score. After two sudden-death overtime periods, the two teams remained tied, forcing the game to be decided by penalty kicks.
Cincinnati goalkeeper John Adams was rock-solid in the net during the PK shootout, making an incredible diving save on the first shot. The Cats ended the game in a 4-2 upset over Marquette to advance to the championship round.
Sunday afternoon in front of more than 1,000 spectators at Robert R. Hermann Stadium, the Billikens downed Cincinnati in a 3-2 thriller to capture the conference crown.
The Billikens scored so early in the game that fans were still trickling in and missed the early goal by Joe Hammes, less than five minutes into play.
The Bills retained a 1-0 lead throughout the half, but the Bearcats came out feisty in the second half and put pressure on the Billikens early on. Cincy netted the tying goal less than three minutes into the half, after Nick Gannon tripped a UC forward in the Billiken penalty area and a PK was awarded. Cincinnati’s Brandon Dobbs blasted a low, hard shot into the farside corner, beyond the reach of SLU’s Martin Hutton.
For nearly eight minutes, the two teams duked it out, trying to regain control of the scoreboard before Mike Kirchoff put the Bills back on top. The play began with a fast centering pass from Nick Walls to the top of the box, where Jack Jewsbury gently tapped the ball behind his left heel to roll to Kirchoff, who was streaking up the nearside into the box and connected on a rocket inside the box that caught Adams off-guard.
Thirteen minutes later, Cincinnati retaliated with a second tying goal at 78:46 after a UC forward evaded three sliding SLU defenders and passed the ball back from the touchline to an unmarked Josh Gardner, who easily slipped the ball into the net.
“In the defensive third of the field, you have to take things to another level. We didn’t do that,” Donigan said.
The game winner came with just over 13 minutes left in the game on a miraculous play by Walls and Cole. Walls lobbed a high ball toward the goal and Cole jumped to make the header, but he jumped too soon and hung in the air before connecting with the ball and burying it in the upper corner of the net.
“I yelled at [Walls] to send the ball to the backpost,” Cole said. “He served the perfect ball and I went up for it.”
The remaining 13 minutes had the entire stadium on edge as both teams fought viciously to win the game, but the Billiken defense, anchored by Kevin Wickart and Andy Pusateri, held strong and matched the physical intensity of the despairing Bearcats, shutting the Cats out for the final minutes of the game.
Cole, Pusateri, Walls and Wickart were named to the All-Tournament team, and the win marks the third straight C-USA title for the Billikens.
Cole led the league in goals (with 16), shots on goals, points and average points per game. Cole is ranked ninth in the nation, with an average of 2.18 points per game.
