Men’s Soccer Tops Madonna in OT 1-0, Earns Third Seed in the WHAC

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LIVONIA, Mich. — Marygrove men’s soccer worked its way to a quality 1-0 overtime win over Madonna, tallying the golden goal in the 93rd minute when Haider Alzayadi found Gbenga Ayanwale to help the Mustangs earn their 10th win of the 2015 campaign. The victory on a soggy Wednesday (Oct. 28) in Livonia, Mich. secured the second home WHAC playoff match in as many seasons as the Mustangs locked up the third seed in the upcoming conference tournament.

The Mustangs will host the sixth seed – team to be determined after Saturday’s results – on Saturday (Nov. 7) on their home pitch in the Motor City.

On Wednesday, the Mustangs and host Madonna Crusaders played a scoreless 90 minutes as the nearby foes needed an extra frame to decide a winner. The Crusaders jumped out early, recording a pair of shots on goal over the first 20 minutes of the contest.

Seventh-year head coach Matt Johnson gave the nod to Ayman Youssef (Dearborn Heights, Mich./Walsh University) for the third consecutive game and the keeper was up to the Crusaders’ early challenge, turning away both offerings to keep the match scoreless through 20 minutes.

The Mustangs’ stingy defense took over from there as the backline and defensive midfield did not allow another shot in Youssef’s direction to earn the team’s fifth shutout of the season. Youssef earned his third clean sheet of the campaign while improving his record on the season to 4-3-0.

The Mustangs had chances to end the match in the second half, sending two shots toward the Crusaders’ standout keeper, Marcel Schmid, that were eventually saved to preserve a scoreless regulation.

A mere 2:27 into overtime, Alzayadi played a well-timed ball forward, finding the feet of Ayanwale for a goal that beat Schmid inside the right post. The goal sent the Mustangs’ bench into a frenzy that spilled over into the locker room as the Green and Gold celebrated a quality win that secured home-field advantage for the first round of the conference tournament.

Youssef recorded two saves during his 92:27 clean sheet to improve his season goals against average to an even 1.00. Youssef’s counterpart, Schmid, set anchor nicely for the Crusaders by saving four Mustang shots before allowing the golden goal in overtime.

The Mustangs took home the shots on target advantage, 5-2, despite losing the overall shots battle (8-6). Corner kicks fell narrowly in favor of the Mustangs, 5-4.

The Mustangs will close out regular-season action on Saturday (Oct. 31) at home with the difficult task of taking on the NAIA’s No. 4 squad, the University of Northwestern Ohio Racers. The Mustangs and Racers will kick-off in Detroit at 3 p.m. with live video beginning at 2:45 p.m. on the Mustang Sports Network.

MEN’S SOCCER CONTACT: Tim Johnston | [email protected]/* */ | @tjohnston56
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