Saito's golden goal completes comeback and sends Pride to Heart Tournament Semifinals

DUBUQUE, Iowa - A historic night at Burrows Field had an electric finish in Clarke University men's soccer's 2-1 overtime victory against Benedictine College in the Heart of America Athletic Conference Tournament Quarterfinals on Wednesday night.

Hosting their first ever postseason home game in program history, the Pride wouldn't get off to the type of start they were hoping for with the Ravens scoring in the third minute when Norberto Montero was able to run onto a ball from Diego Acuna to beat CU goalie Philipp Kohle and make it 1-0 very early for the visitors.

The 1-0 game would hold all the way until late into the second half, largely due to the performance from Benedictine goalkeeper Noah Reuscher who made seven saves, three in the first half and four in the second half, most notably a diving save on a Kenshin Yasujima shot late in the first half as he fully stretched out to keep the ball out of the goal in the 42nd minute, then another save on a strong chance in the second half when Hector Medrano got his head to ball on the doorstep in the in the 78th minute but Reuscher was positioned perfectly.

Nearly 10 minutes prior to the second half save by Reuscher, Montero would get another chance open in the box but had fallen to his back needing to chip an awkward shot from a prone position that would beat Kohle but Nearco Zamorano was on the goal line to head the ball away to keep the game at 1-0, one of the more important plays of the game in hindsight.

Earning an offensive third throw-in with under 10 minutes remaining in the game, Joshua Reddy's initial long throw would roll back to his feet for a cross to the back post where the reigning Heart Defensive Player of the Week Nadji Rebai would get his head to it and score the Pride's first goal of the game to equalize the game at 1-1 in the 81st minute.

That 1-1 score would hold to the horn sounding at the end of regulation, sending the game into sudden victory overtime for the first overtime game at Burrows Field since the 2021 season when these two same teams played an overtime game on Sept. 25, 2021 resulting in a 5-4 win in overtime for Clarke.

In overtime, it would only take 56 seconds for the Pride to win the game as Alvaro Martinez made a strong defensive play on the left wing to win the ball in space where he would send a cross in the middle of the box that was deflected by Medrano to Eikichi Saito who fired a shot to beat Reuscher upper 90 for Saito's fourth goal of the season and the victory for the home time.

With the win, Clarke men's soccer will move on to the Heart Tournament Semifinals as they will be on the road to face the No. 2 seed William Penn University for a 7:00 p.m. CT in Oskaloosa, Iowa on Saturday, Nov. 9.