As the soccer regular season winds to a close, Kentucky Wesleyan College finds itself in a prime position to build upon last year’s success. A year ago, the Panthers upset the top team in the conference en route to a championship game appearance.
With only two games remaining in the regular season, they sit third in the standings, just four points behind second place Cedarville and five points behind first place Tiffin.
“The goal of the season was we finished in the conference final last year, so we don’t want to finish in the top two anymore,” Kentucky Wesleyan Head Coach John Fusco said. “There is only one spot to go.”
Vying for the number one seed in the conference, the Panthers have a chance to host a home playoff game for the first time in school history. They are also in the midst of a 10 game unbeaten streak, the longest in school history.
“It’s amazing. There is no better feeling personally, and to be part of a group like that and spread it around, “KWC’s Haakon Trovbraaten said. “I’m from Norway, and I tell my friends, family, and everyone I know back home what we are doing. The word gets spread around out here as well, and it is an amazing feeling.”
7-0-3 over their last 10 games, yesterday afternoon they drew with the eighth ranked team in Division II, Cedarville.
Cedarville took a 1-0 lead into halftime and pushed their lead to two in the opening minutes of the second half. Less than 30 seconds later, Hamish Strong scored off a header stemming from Pavel Valchev’s corner kick to cut the lead to 2-1.
In the 61st minute, the Yellowjackets pushed the lead to 3-1 and seemed to be on the verge of running away with the game. Entering yesterday afternoon, Cedarville had held its last seven opponents scoreless and had only allowed six goals all season.
Similar to earlier in the half, the Panthers struck right back, with Braeden Myers-Curry scoring off an assist from Euan Moss.
“The player under me got the ball and a lot of times they expect the striker to check in,” Myers-Curry said. “I made the run in behind and just slotted it in.”
KWC scored the equalizer in the 74th minute, when on a free kick, Jersey Lopez found Jhaeem Bryan for a header.
In the thick of the race for the top seed in the conference, the Panthers return to action on Saturday for Senior Night against Ohio Dominican, before ending the regular season on Tuesday at Thomas More. Fusco is pleased with his team’s progress at this point of the season and believes they are right in the mix of their goal of a top four seed for playoffs.
“We wanted to be in the top half, and our ultimate goal was to be in the top two because that gets us a playoff bye,” Fusco said. “We still have an outside chance for that, but hopefully we finish in at least the third or fourth spot. That will give us at least a home match, which would be a program first. We are where we want to be because we want to keep playing through the month of November, too.”
