Lourdes scored twice in the final six minutes of the match on Saturday evening, but its comeback bid came up just short in a 3-2 setback to Cornerstone at Wildcat Stadium in the quarterfinals of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament.
"We struggled to adjust to the elements early on and Cornerstone was very opportunistic, capitalizing on a couple mistakes we made in the back," head coach
Matt Johnson said. "We did show great character in the second half, and I'm extremely proud of the effort we showed fighting back to get it to within 3-2. It is a bitter pill losing in the playoffs, especially at home, but the work we did with our backs against the wall we'll undoubtedly take with us into next year."
Neither team found the back of the net for the first 40 minutes of the contest before Jason Lugo put the Golden Eagles in front with 4:29 to play before halftime. He took a ball that was played ahead by Luke Stewart in the box and scored, giving fifth-seeded Cornerstone a 1-0 lead at the break.
Just under seven minutes into the second half, Chana Batan doubled the Golden Eagle lead, scoring from the left side of the box after receiving a feed from Allan Barrientos.
David Mawi made it 3-0 Cornerstone with 26:56 remaining, firing a blast into the upper 90 from just outside the box after receiving a pass from Lugo.
Farouk Amoo (South Holland, Ill./Thornwood H.S.) put the Gray Wolves on the scoreboard with 5:31 to play.
Olawole Ogunsanya (Dallas, Texas/Arlington H.S.) played a ball ahead to Amoo who beat the Golden Eagle keeper to make it 3-1.
With 35 seconds to play in regulation, Lourdes, the tournament's fourth seed, was fouled in the penalty area and
Savio Adams (Cape Town, South Africa/Zeekoevlei H.S.) converted the penalty kick, pulling the Gray Wolves within one. Lourdes could not find the equalizer in the closing seconds though.
Lourdes held a 17-6 shot advantage, but each team had four shots on target.
Ali Chokr (Bint Jbail, Lebanon/Fountainebleau [La.] H.S.) made one stop in goal for the Gray Wolves.
