Intramural soccer ends with exciting matches
Gordon Field proved to be the stage of two exciting finals for intramural soccer, as the men's and coed divisions had their championship matches contested on Thursday night.
In the men's final, top-seeded KSA faced second-seeded IBS. The teams split their two regular season meetings.
In the final, however, IBS outlasted KSA for a 3-1 victory. Jennifer Marble (GRAD), who was playing in the men's division, got IBS on the board first with a goal eight minutes into the game.
Just nine minutes later, Artem Bolshakov (GRAD) made it 2-0, giving his team a decisive advantage.
Both goals were assisted by Matan Kurman (GRAD).
Despite being a man down due to an earlier red card, IBS made the score 3-0, 7:22 into the second half on a goal by Baran Budak (GRAD), assisted by team captain Baffour Boateng (GRAD).
With 53 seconds left in the game KSA's Jaemo Lee '17 scored on a pass from captain Ryan Jang '14 to avoid the shutout.
Kaushal Vaddiraj (GRAD) made six saves for IBS, while Jin Uk Cho '15 made three for KSA.
The coed final featured an intense matchup between top-seeded Shin Bowls and third-seeded Pandora's Penalty Box, who had upset second-seeded Tyler Loves Emily in the semi-finals 2-0.
The teams did battle once in the regular season. In that game-despite Pandora leading 1-0 at the half-Shin Bowls emerged victorious 5-2.
This time, the game would be much closer. Despite good scoring chances in the first half from Pandora's Robbie Sousa '15 and Jacob Elder '15 as well as Shin Bowls' Ku Jung '14, the game was a scoreless encounter going into the second half.
Just moments into the second half, Shin Bowls seemingly took control, scoring two quick goals from Jung and Bethany Rennich '17, which gave them a 2-0 advantage. With Pandora offering little attacking threat, it appeared that Shin Bowls would run away with the game.
However, everything changed quickly, as Pandora scored with just over 10 minutes left to make it 2-1. Sam Mintz '15 took a free kick from half field, which evaded the entire Shin Bowls defense and goalkeeper, as it clanged off of the left post and into the net.
Sensing that their opponents were vulnerable, Pandora went into offensive overdrive. With one minute, 33 seconds left, a Shin Bowls player was issued a red card for a two-footed slide tackle.
With 10 seconds left, Pandora was inches away from getting an equalizer. Elder sent a left-footed shot from 10 yards out, which beat the Shin Bowls goalkeeper. However, the shot clanked off of the right post and out of play, securing the victory for Shin Bowls.
Editor's note: Sam Mintz '15 is the production editor of The Justice.
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