Box Score
PINEVILLE, La. – The Wildcats closed their home schedule in style Friday night. As Louisiana College honored four senior men's soccer players, a collection of up-and-comers sparked a 3-2 overtime win against American Southwest Conference foe East Texas Baptist.

“This was our third try at overtime and our first overtime win,” first-year coach Prince Borde said. “It shows we are learning and improving. Every game – win, lose or draw – we try to take something away from it and improve. This is a continuation of that.”

Prior to the match, the quartet of Eric Post, Nic Philpot (Pineville, La./Pineville HS), Tyler Green (Gautier, Miss./Gautier HS) and John Michiels (Shreveport, La./Captain Shreve) were honored as part of Senior Day.

With Green, Philpot and Michiels providing some solid defensive play and magnificent feeds throughout the contest, the Wildcats were able to build one-goal leads twice in the second half.

The first goal of the game was scored in the 49th minute when Jakob Goodwin (Scott, La./Acadiana HS) scored on a crossing pass from Benny Barshai (Parkland, Fla./IMG Academies).

ETBU tied the score within four minutes with a goal from Juan Ramirez.

Five minutes later, at the 58:11 mark, Edwin Morale (St. Amant, La./St. Amant HS) headed in a ball off a corner kick by Collin Yammarino (Scott, La./Acadiana HS).

Yammarino set pieces were an LC calling card in the game as, in the 105th minute, with just 4:38 to play in the second overtime session, he would feed a ball into Barshai for the game-winning header.

“I felt like I was striking the ball well,” Yammarino said. “I was just trying to put the ball in dangerous places for their defense. The credit goes to Edwin and Benny. They went in and finished it.”

Of his game-winning goal, Barshai said, “It was a pretty even match throughout the game. Both sides were pressuring and creating opportunities. When Collin fed the ball in, I saw that it was coming in high and that I could duck in front of my defender and try to get a touch with my head.”

The win was the third of the year for the Wildcats, who went winless in 2010. LC's 2011 record will not be good enough for a berth in the American Southwest Conference tournament but steady improvements have the young team – most of the Wildcats' key players are sophomores and freshmen – eying a brighter future.

“We're a first-year team that had never played together prior to this year,” Barshai, a sophomore,said. “We're just starting to get it all together. We're building character, build confidence and laying a foundation for the future. There are still steps to be taken, we know that, but a win in a close game like this is a step in the right direction.”

“Everything in this conference is based on confidence,” Yammarino, also a sophomore, said. “Wins like this are helping us to develop our confidence going forward. Seeing how we're not going to be able to make the tournament this year, everything now is about building for next season. An overtime win is a big step in the right direction.”