The Lakeland College men's soccer team made it a game against one of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference's best teams for more than a half, but Benedictine (Ill.) University pulled away in the second half for a 9-3 win.
The Eagles scored in the final minute of the first half to break a 2-2 tie and then scored three times early in the second half to blow the game open. Benedictine kept pace with the NACC's leaders, improving to 7-1 in conference (8-6-1 overall) while the Muskies dropped to 4-10-1 overall and 1-6 in league play.
Lakeland surprised the visitors early, responding to an early Eagles goal with two of its own to take a 2-1 lead.
Mirko Tadic (
Sr.-Santiago, Chile) scored in the 17th minute with an assist from
Franco Herrera (
Jr.-Naucalpan, Mexico), and then struck again just 1:36 later for an unassisted goal to suddenly put the Muskies ahead.
Benedictine scored the tying goal just over 11 minutes later when goalkeeper
Thomis Mannebach (
Fr.-Florence, Wis.) misplayed a ball coming at him and Nick Kapetanos stole it away and cored to knot the score at 2-2.
The match turned in the last minute of the first half. Ante Markotic came up with a steal and found Kapetanos for his second goal with just 51 seconds left in the half, giving the Eagles a 3-2 lead. Benedictine then broke the match open with three quick goals in the second half to take a 6-2 lead.
The Muskies gained one goal back in the 77th minute.
Jordan Fischer (
Fr.-Howards Grove, Wis.) worked the ball down the left side and got it to
Gustavo Flores Pous (
So.-Xochitepec, Mexico), who found
Zachary Kline (
So.-Luxemburg, Wis.) on the right. Kline one-timed the shot in with authority for his first collegiate goal to make it 6-3.
Benedictine continued to press forward to the end in an attempt to add to its season goal differential, which is one of the NACC's top tiebreakers in the standings. The Eagles added three more goals in the final 6:53 with most of their starters still in the match against Lakeland's reserves.
The Muskies play their final home match of the season on Tuesday when they host Marian University at 3:30 p.m.
