When the men’s soccer team had only ten seconds left to play in their season finale against the University of Chicago, the Bears did the one thing that they have struggled to do all season – they scored.

The players rushed the field after a shot by midfielder sophomore David Borton gave the team a startling 2-1 victory on the road Saturday, Nov. 8.

“It meant a lot just because it was such a great history,” said junior defender Jeffrey LaBoskey. “And it was definitely one of the best games of the season. It was awesome to end the game that way, especially for the seniors.”

With Borton’s last chance heroics, the seniors were able to celebrate their first win over Chicago in their four years. The Maroons shut out the Bears 2-0 last season.

Co-captain James Ward sad, “We really weren’t thinking about the previous losses. We just wanted to finish the season with a win.”

“We wanted to win especially for the seniors because they’ve never beaten Chicago,” said LaBoskey. “Since it was our last game and could not get us into the playoffs, it was really all about pride.”

Chicago summoned a blow to the Bears pride early in the game when Peter Schlaefer scored off a corner kick to put the Maroons up 1-0 at the 9:40 mark.

“We let a sloppy goal in early because we didn’t get it cleared out,” said LaBoskey.

The Bears were playing in a 3-5-2 formation, but about ten minutes after the first goal, they switched to a 4-4-2 formation.

“We started passing the ball around a lot better,” said LaBoskey.

The University was successful in evening up the score within five minutes of making that adjustment on the field. Co-captain senior Steve Bujarski crossed the ball with his left foot from the left side towards sophomore John Horky, who knocked a header into the left corner of the net.

Ward felt that the team played a strong 90 minutes but became increasingly effective as the game progressed. Ward said, “We improved in a lot of areas that we had been working on during the week and throughout the entire season. Being more disciplined on defense was one of the things that we wanted to focus on. We were very disciplined on defense in terms of not getting beat on the dribble. Our one on one defending improved as the game went on.”

The defensive intensity helped the Bears hold off the home team’s attacks in the second half. Goalkeeper junior Colin Robinson was also a factor. He pulled in 7 saves for the game en route to totaling 59 saves in 15 games.

The Bears out-shot the Maroons 17-13 but allowed Chicago a 4-2 corner kick advantage. Still, neither team could manage to create an advantage in the second half. LaBoskey explained what contributed to the second half standstill.

“Their team is very similar to ours,” LaBoskey said. “They are very skillful and are good at moving the ball around quickly, especially in the back. They are a possession team like us. They didn’t have any clear weaknesses, unless you said their goalie.”

Ward agreed that one area in which Chicago certainly could not match them was in defending the net.

Ward said, “I think their goalie was their biggest weak point, and that showed in the end of the game. He took risks, and because of that he made a mistake when it was most important. He gave us the opportunity to create a chance. We did and we converted our chance.”

The Bears had barely missed in many of their earlier opportunities to bury one in the back of the net.

“There were just a lot of chances,” said LaBoskey. “There was even one goal that was called back because they said it didn’t cross the line.”

As the clock wound down in regulation, it looked as thought the Bears were going to fall short again in their final scoring attempt. After the ball came to LaBoskey on the right side, he crossed it to the top of the 18. It was hard to tell what happened as Bears’ forward sophomore Rob Weeks and Chicago’s goalie, Micah Prochaska, both went up for the ball.

“The goalie came out and misplayed it,” said Leboesky. “He grabbed the ball and then he dropped it. The ball was bouncing around a lot and came out to the left side. It was just a big scramble with a lot of people in the last eleven seconds. Then David Borton knocked it to the right side of the goal.”

“It felt unbelievable,” said Ward. “It was just a great way to finish the season. Given that we would not make the playoffs, I don’t think we could have ended the season on a better note.”

Still, “It is a disappointment to not be going to the playoffs,” said LaBoskey, “but this game in particular was such a good win that it still felt good ending the season that way.”

LaBoskey added, “It is sad also because we are losing a lot of great seniors. They have all helped set the tone for this team in terms of work ethic, and they all played really well on Saturday.”

Seniors Bujarski and Ward led the team with three assists apiece, and each contributed two goals as well. Borton joined senior Scott Siebers as scoring leaders for the Bears with 4 goals each.

Saturday’s win helped the University tie for third place in the University Athletic Association, or the UAA. The Bears finished the season 10-5-4 with a 4-2-1 conference record.

Four times during the season the men could not come up with one goal late in the game to turn a 0-1 loss into a tie. Another four times the men again could not put in one last goal to win instead of tie. Though overall the Bears out-shot their opponents 243-171 and outscored them 26-15, eight times they failed to score when they wanted to most. Finally, the team succeeded as Borton’s last-chance-of-the-season shot was good for the win, pride, and redemption.

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