Micah Whorton dumped in the winning goal off a pass from Taylor Stacy with 4:49 left in overtime, lifting Drury to a 3-2 victory over nationally top-ranked Northern Kentucky in a Great Lakes Valley Conference men's soccer showdown at Harrison Stadium Friday night.
Drury, off to the best start in the program's history as an NCAA member, moved to 8-0 overall and maintained its perch atop the GLVC standings at 5-0. Northern Kentucky fell to 7-1 and 3-1 in having a 29-game regular season winning streak snapped in the process. The Norse had not lost in the regular season since a 2-1 setback at Missouri-Rolla on Sept. 15, 2006.
The Panthers, who were 0-3 all-time against NKU and had not scored a goal in the series history (7-0 being the tally), struck first when junior Steve Wilczewski scored his team-leading ninth goal from five yards out at 41:40 off a Ben Nabers assist to give Drury the 1-0 lead at halftime.
But the Norse struck quickly in the second half, getting goals off throw-ins from Braden Bishop at 54:35 and Dustin Downey at 61:17 to go back on top 2-1. It stayed that way, despite several near-misses by the Panthers, until Drury knotted it at 2-all on sophomore Ben Taylor's goal off a free kick at 81:47.
In the overtime, NKU was forced to play a man down when a Norse player picked up a red card less than two minutes in, and Drury took advantage when Stacy found Whorton on a breakaway and the sophomore cooly dumped the shot past Norse keeper Michael Lavric for the victory, setting off a mad scene, with the DU student body joining the Panthers on the field to celebrate arguably the biggest victory in the program's history.
Drury outshot the Norse 15-7
"What a tremendous match," Drury coach Alf Bilbao says. "I'm proud of these guys for sticking with our game when Northern took the lead there early in the second half. We continued to believe in our system and did a great job of keeping our composure when we got down ... and at the end of the day the better team won.
"The crowd we had here tonight - the best since I've been here - played a huge role in keeping us going, so we owe a lot to them. It was just a great night for Drury soccer."
The Panthers return to action on Sunday, playing host to Indianapolis in a 2:30 p.m. GLVC match at Harrison Stadium.
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