TAMPA, Fla. – The clock had to strike midnight eventually for the Northern Kentucky University men's soccer team, and strike it did in the 98th minute, when Lamine Traore netted his second goal of the match to send Dowling to the national championship game with a 2-1 overtime victory.
The Norse (16-3-4) set the tone of the match on an early corner kick opportunity. Dustin Downey's initial volley proved fruitless, but when the clearance came back to him for a second try, he made it count, finding Seth Eckerlin for a stunning header goal, Eckerlin's first of the season, to take the lead just four minutes into the contest.
"I've been waiting all season for that one and luckily it came through in this game," Eckerlin said of the marker. "My teammates gave me the confidence to put the ball in the net."
"Every day in practice I give Seth a hard time about not being able to score," added Downey with a smile. "I sent him a ball today and he put it in the back of the net, so I guess it paid off."
Braden Bishop had a chance of his own just two minutes later when he stole away a ball from Dowling goalkeeper Nemanja Veljovic. However, with the defensive pressure on, his attempt at the open net sailed high and kept the margin at one.
Meanwhile, Dowling's offensive opportunities consisted primarily of long service passes in search of Traore's gifted boot. NKU's defensive corps stayed strong to the task, though.
"We just had to keep [Traore] in front of us, stay in between him and the goal, and not bite in so they could run at us. That's their game plan," said Tony Ray, who was a part of NKU's hard-working back row. "I think we stuck to that plan for pretty much the entire game."
NKU got two more chances late in the first half, the first coming in the 38th minute when Tommy Barrick got a header shot off a free kick opportunity which Veljovic turned aside. The loose ball was sent across the goal mouth by the Norse, but no one could finish the job.
Another came in the waning moments of the half on another set piece. Mike Jonca served a free kick in to Steven Beattie for one of his five scoring attempts on the game, but, again, Dowling's netminder was up to the task and fended off the NKU chance.
As the second half came on, the Norse continued to pressure the attack, finding a chance in the 70th minute when Ray, racing up the right side on the attack, sent a low cross for Anthony Meyer, but led the freshman a tad too far, and the Norse could not put a shot in.
It was 10 minutes later when the Golden Lions (19-3) would find the chink in NKU's armor. Vlad Milosavljevic found the ball on the left side and floated a pass ahead for Traore, being marked well by the NKU defense. Dowling's leading scorer would not be denied, though, reaching out his boot to just lift a shot from left post to right, out of the reach of NKU goalkeeper Michael Lavric to knot the score at one.
Postgame, NKU's Beattie admired the talent on display. "We kept him off the board for 80 minutes, and he stepped up and made a play. You have to tip your cap to that."
The Norse redoubled their efforts late when Eckerlin was taken down just outside the penalty area in the 83rd minute to set up another free kick opportunity for NKU. Jonca stepped up to send the shot over the defensive wall, but pushed the ball too high and over the frame.
Dowling responded in the 87th minute, getting a deep pass to set up a one-on-one opportunity offensively. The pass went wide to Samba Treore, who's blast was just off the right post and wide, maintaining the 1-1 draw through regulation time.
Having found a chink in the NKU armor, Dowling continued to pressure, culminating in an overtime play where Rob Miller won a 50-50 ball in the midfield and sent a strong pass ahead to El Hadji Mbow. The look was to Lamine Treore again, who took the cross and buried a blast on the right side for his 26th goal of the season, and the final one scored on the Norse in 2008.
After the game, head coach John Basalyga explained that a second goal would have been all the difference for his Norse.
"Our team is built around [defense], it's built around being organized and it's built around tenacity and just being in the right spot. It's not unusual that we played as well as we did, we just didn't take care of our chances when we had them early on.
"You have to have finishers."
Beattie echoed the sentiments.
"When you score early, mentally, you're on a high, but then you start to think, you start looking at the clock. But when you get to this point, you have to score, you can't feel invincible."
Nonetheless, the Norse take pride in their accomplishment, going deeper in the NCAA Tournament than any NKU team before them.
"I don't think we could have gotten this far without Coach pushing us," said Eckerlin, who will return for his senior season in 2009. "He's made our hearts bigger than anyone, all season he's been pushing us really hard."
"We've got a special program here, especially Coach Bas," said Beattie, who set a single-season record with 21 goals in 2008. "Our aim was, basically, to take it one step further than we did last year. I'm just a sophomore here, but I've learned so much being a part of this program."
"I knew if I came here I had a chance to make it to this level," added Downey, who completed his only season at NKU after transferring from a defunct Western Kentucky squad. "I wanted to achieve something this year, so my expectations were high coming here. I was glad to be a part of it."
And Basalyga returns those sentiments to his players.
"These kids came to NKU four years ago, and they took a chance on me, being a high school coach. This athletic department took a chance hiring a guy like me, and it's really neat to see guys buy into a program. It's a tribute to their heart, it's a tribute to their passion for playing, and their desire to be at NKU."
And next year, just as this year, the expectation will be to go one game further.
"We think we've set a good stepping stone here, and hopefully we can continue to build on it."
