A Triple Play
Eleven seconds. That was all that separated the Gannon men’s soccer team from advancing to the GLIAC tournament championship game.
p
laying on their home field in the tournament’s second semifinal game, the Knights, thanks to two goals by sophomore Dan Howell, held a 2-1 lead against their bitter rival, Mercyhurst College. With the seconds ticking away, victory seemed inevitable, and with it Gannon seemed all but assured of playing for the GLIAC title. The celebration would have to wait, though, as Mercyhurst tied the game 2-2 with only 11 seconds left. Under the circumstances—being forced to play an overtime session after leading the game throughout—a lesser team might have collapsed under the disappointment and pressure. But not these Knights, who, as coach Rob van Rheenen likes to say, are an extremely resilient bunch. “We were concerned after they tied it,” van Rheenen said. “Momentum can change very quickly and decisively. The way they responded says a lot about their toughness.” Gannon’s Geneo Oberst won the game with a goal seven minutes and 32 seconds into the overtime. Two days later, before more than 800 fans at a raucous Gannon University Field, the Knights beat Northwood 2-0 to win the GLIAC tournament championship and help the team to the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time since the 1993 season. Mission impossible? More like mission accomplished. “We hadn’t been to the tournament in a while, and we desperately wanted to get back,” van Rheenen said. “That was one of our goals at the beginning of the season.”
g 14
annon’s win over Mercyhurst in the GLIAC tournament semifinal was significant for a number of reasons.
First and foremost, the win allowed Gannon to eliminate Mercyhurst from the tournament and end the Lakers’ season. It also was a very satisfying win in the teams’ heated rivalry, one that van Rheenen says Mercyhurst has gotten the better of in recent years. Coming into this season, for example, the Knights were only 1-7-1 against Mercyhurst dating to 2000. And, had Gannon lost to Mercyhurst in the GLIAC semifinals on November 1, the Knights probably would not have
by Nicholas Pronko
been invited to the NCAA tournament. The win also put Gannon in the GLIAC tournament final against Northwood. Because Gannon had won the GLIAC regular season title, with an 8-1-1 record, the Knights earned the right to host the tournament. van Rheenen admits it would have been a huge disappointment for Gannon to host the tournament but not advance to the championship game. “It was great playing at home, and I have to commend our athletic department and staff for managing all of the details that come with putting on a first-class event,” he said. With the 3-2 win over the Lakers, however, the players ensured van Rheenen would attend the final as a coach and not as a spectator. The victory was all the more impressive considering that one of Gannon’s starting defenders got hurt during the game, forcing the Knights to make adjustments and rely on younger players. But, overcoming adversity was nothing new for the 2007 Golden Knights. In just the second game of the season, at home against Southern Indiana, Gannon lost two key players to injury: forward/midfielder Rudi Costa and goalkeeper Matthew Ruston. Because of the severity of their injuries, both players missed the rest of the season. To their credit, the players did not use the injuries as an excuse. After the 3-1 win over Southern Indiana, Gannon won its next five games to improve to 7-0 en route to finishing the regular season 14-2-1. Gareth Kolkenbeck-Ruh, a senior defender/midfielder, said the team’s grit often carried it through tough times. “I will remember the character this team showed,” Kolkenbeck-Ruh said. “We seemed to run into many injury problems, and yet when one player got hurt, someone else stepped up and played his heart and soul out.” “There was something special about this team in that we managed to win games that, on paper, we had no right to win,” he added. The Knights’ 5-2 loss to Northern Kentucky in the opening game of the NCAA tournament did little to put a damper on what was a tremendous resurgence for the Knights. In addition to advancing to the NCAA tournament, Gannon captured its most wins in a single season since 1993.
i
n one respect, 2007 will go down in the annals of Gannon sports as arguably one of the greatest in the University’s history. The soccer team’s GLIAC championship capped an amazing and improbable year in which two of Gannon’s other intercollegiate teams, women’s basketball and softball,