Crazy Comeback Ends with OT Loss

Photos Courtesy of Jen Atkinson

On Saturday at Rock Springs Junior High field the Utah State Eastern Golden Eagles faced the home standing Western Wyoming Mustangs.  It was a strange match, a tale of a dramatic comeback and match of what might have been for the Mustangs.

USU Eastern netted the first goal in the 20th minute, this was the lone goal of the first half.  The Mustangs were playing a little flat and lacking intensity in possession.  The half time score was 1 - 0 in favor of the Golden Eagles.

The second half was much of the same for the first 35 minutes.  USU Eastern scored in the 46th minute off of a defensive mistake by the Mustangs for a 2 - 0 lead.  The match seemed to play right into USU Eastern's hands when Gunner Burrell from WWCC was red carded with 9 minutes remaining.  What looked like an insurance goal the USU Golden Eagles scored in the 82nd minute for a seemingly insurmountable lead of 3 - 0 with 8 minutes to go.  The Mustangs never gave up and scored off of a steal and got the score to 1 - 3 in the 82nd minute when Jesse Cardenas scored off of an Andrew Newbold assist.  Continuing to fight and claw back in to the match the Mustangs scored again in the 87th minute when Riley Gibson sent a great ball that Brock Mosier scored into the bottom left corner.  WWCC played lights out and found another opportunity with just 10 seconds left on the clock and a free kick.  Taylor Flitton sent the ball into the penalty box where the ball bounced around several times, Andrew Newbold touched the ball to Brock Mosier who scored his brace with just 3 seconds on the clock to tie up the match at 3 to 3.

In overtime the Golden Eagles won the toss and took the wind at their back.  It was a fairly evenly played overtime period.  Just when it seemed that they two teams were destined to play the second overtime period, USU Eastern counter attacked and split the WWCC defense and scored in the 99th minute to end the match.  Final Score WWCC 3 - USU Eastern 4 OT.

Mustang Man of the Match - Brock Mosier, Brock scored two goals in the match including the match tying goal with 3 seconds remaining in the match.

Match Facts - Shots - WWCC 10, USUE 19; Assists - WWCC 3, USUE 4; Saves - WWCC 5, USUE 2; Corner Kicks - WWCC 4, USUE 3; Free Kicks - WWCC 13, USUE 11; Cards - WWCC 6, USUE 3.

Up Next for the Mustangs; Friday September  19th versus Otero Junior College - La Junta CO at 4:00pm.