In the past five seasons, the Raven men's soccer team has matched up against arch-rival Baker University eight times with nearly every match coming down to the wire.
Saturday night in the feature contest of the 2012 Homecoming Weekend, Benedictine (10-2-2, 4-1-0 HAAC) used five second-half goals to earn an amazing come-from-behind win over Baker (6-5-3, 3-2-0 HAAC) 5-4.
Words like heart and intensity get thrown around a lot as sports cliche's but on Saturday night, those two things shined brightly for head coach Rob Herringer and his squad in the second half.
"(We showed a lot of) heart and (played with) intensity," Coach Herringer said. "We were unlucky giving up a couple of goals in the first half that we shouldn't have. After we scored the first goal and the guys started to believe they were in the game, the flood gates started to open."
Trailing 2-0 at the half, the Ravens came out firing in the second half scoring between the 58th minute and 61st minute.
Baker rallied to score twice over the final seven minutes of the match but a diving save by Raven keeper Taylor Vinnage (Soph., Overland Park) inside the final 10 seconds of the match allowed the Benedictine faithful in attendance to storm the field in celebration as the Ravens earn the win.
Baker's lead came on goals from Donny George and Odaine Sinclair during the first 30 minutes of the match.
The Ravens trailed at the half holding a 4-2 advantage over the Wildcats in shots.
Benedictine's comeback began during the 58th minute when Joe Sbarro (Jr., Kansas City, Mo.) scored off an assist from Brian Flores (Fr., Bentonville, Ark.)
Jacob Fischer (Jr,. Kansas City, Mo.) scored the equalizer during the 71st minute and seconds later Flores gave the Ravens their first lead of the match with just under 20 minutes remaining.
Fernando Galvan (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.) and Sbarro added Benedictine's fourth and fifth goals of the match off assists from Gui Gomes (Soph., Sao Paulo, Brazil) during the 81st and 82nd minutes and the Baker made things interesting with their final two goals of the match.
Vinnage played all 90 minutes in goal for Benedictine and was credited with one save – which allowed the Ravens to seal the win.
The Ravens improve their record over the past eight seasons against Baker to 8-2 with the win.
The win also allowed Benedictine to keep pace with Missouri Valley at the top of the HAAC standings as the conference enters the final week of play.
The Ravens finish the regular season on the road, first traveling to Lamoni, Iowa, on Tuesday for a match against Graceland University.
