Sept. 10, 2014

By Justin St. Peter

After a scoreless 90 minutes against Edgewood College on Sept. 5 at Fiskum Field, the Warhawks men’s soccer team wasted no time sending the Eagles home disappointed.

A minute and 30 seconds into overtime, senior midfielder Michael Montanye netted his first goal of his collegiate career, ending the game.

“It’s about time that Montanye scored because we always give him crap about it,” senior defender Ryan Reid said sarcastically. “It was awesome though and well-deserved.”

Even with the ’Hawks sitting eight seniors, they dominated possession and had more chances than the Eagles as they outshot them 16-1 in the first half. Sophomore forward Justin Stanko had three shots, while junior forward Sam Novak contributed two.

In the second half, the ’Hawks and Eagles both had chances to break the stalemate.

Freshman midfielder Kyle Clancy had a headed chance that was stopped by the Edgewood keeper with six minutes left in the second half.

Junior goalkeeper Alex Buchman had three saves in the game, including two in the last five minutes to preserve a shutout and get his first win of the season.

“Alex Buchman was phenomenal in the goal for us,” head coach Tony Guinn said. “There were two opportunities that Edgewood did have that were really game-winning saves. One came in the last three minutes of the game. That was probably the biggest save of the year so far for us.”

Heading into overtime, Guinn said he kept the message to his team simple.

“All I said to the team was, ‘Let’s just do what we do at Whitewater,’” Guinn said. “‘Let’s go in this overtime and score a goal in the first overtime period and call it a day.”’

A minute and a half later Montanye and the Warhawks were celebrating.

The overtime win is nothing new to Guinn and the ’Hawks after going 5-1-0 in overtime games last year.

The ’Hawks have two games this week. They will host the University of Dubuque at 7 p.m. on Sept. 10 at Fiskum Field and then will travel to Milwauke School of Engineering (MSOE) at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 13.

The ’Hawks’ new formation gives them an extra shot of confidence heading into the rest of the season.

“I honestly believe, with this new formation, that we are going to go far in the NCAA tournament,” Reid said. “This is the deepest class that we have ever had.”