Boys soccer clinches last-minute victory over Madison Warhawks

Nothing could better define the thrill of a soccer game than the final minute of the boys’ soccer game last Tuesday. It is the last game of season. Senior Night. And on top of it, it is against the team’s infamous rival: Madison.

Marshall and Madison students and parents alike, along with Vienna Youth Soccer players packed the stadium, described by senior Keyon Khalilian as the “biggest crowd at a home game since the 2008 regionals.”

The scoreboard gleamed from the southeast end of the field, showing 30 seconds left in the second five-minute overtime period, the game all tied up at 1-1. Midfielder and junior Hotaka Shiomi scored a goal assisted by a throw-in from sophomore and left back Spencer Mooney-Jones.

Madison kicked the ball to the middle of the goalie box from the corner of the 18 yard-box. Center defender, junior Brian Szymanski, cleared it from a few feet off the goal line, sending the ball to senior striker Dylan Goodale.

“He didn’t cut away [from the goal] that time,” Coach Bak said. Goodale “shredded the center midfielder” and went one-on-one with the goalie.

“Then on I knew it was going in,” he added.

“I felt like the ball was going to either hit the post or go in,” Goodale said. “[After scoring], I knew this was going to be my biggest game ever in my high school career.”

Goodale, who had had numerous opportunities to score during the game, was satisfied with the “redemption.”

According to Khalilian, even though “two Madison players were trash-talking” prior to the game, “the fact that we won in a huge crowd was very pleasing.”

Thanks to the win, the team is going to have their “first home district play-off game in three years,” Khalilian said.

Both Goodale and Bak realize that in order to beat Madison again, midfield needs work.

“Our midfield was non-existent in the second half of the game,” Bak said. It was not”until the overtime where we gained our momentum.”

Goodale said that the midfield “had too much possession of the ball” and they needed to be “evenly spaced.”

“The guys won by sheer determination,” Bak said. “We need to put our skills on the field so it won’t be a close game.”