After Giving Up a 2 Goal lead, ODU Wins it Late
Written By: Jake Ullrich
Assistant Sports Editor
It wasn’t exactly how Old Dominion had it planned, but ultimately, a 93 minute goal by Tim Hopkinson secured the three points and in turn, a sixth straight victory.
It seemed Gideon Asante’s 79 minute goal had secured the win. It put the Monarchs up 2-0 and the game seemed done and dusted. Instead, a penalty in the 87 minute and another goal in the 89 for the Panthers made it 2-2 and the game went into overtime.
“It’s a lapse of concentration,” coach Dawson said after the game. “They didn’t have a look at goal all game.”
The game was largely unexciting, neither team was ever really able to dictate the pace of the game and create any solid chances. It seemed Georgia State came in with the mentality to disrupt the Monarchs’ style of play as much as possible by being physical.
“They’re quite destructive,” coach Dawson said. “We had to get the ball on the ground. Had to keep the ball moving, you gotta get movement off the ball.”
“They weren’t used to the way we attack. We’re not a direct team; we’re not a deliberate team. We just gotta play our game and I thought we were intimidated a bit in the first 15 minutes,” coach Dawson said.
The Monarchs’ took a one-goal lead into halftime and it wasn’t a surprise who opened the account. Yannick Smith seems like he can’t stop scoring and found the net in the 31 minute after a Ivan Militar cross. It was Smith’s 13 goal of the season, but he limped off in the first half and didn’t appear again in the game.
It didn’t seem like the Monarchs would miss Smith too much when Asante seemed to seal the win in the 79 minute. A long ball from Alex DeJohn found Asante in full pace, who calmly took a touch around the goalkeeper and passed the ball into the empty net. It should have been game over for the Monarchs, but it was far from it.
In the 87 minute, a long ball was played over the top of the Monarchs’ defense. It seemed it would roll comfortably to goalkeeper Victor Francoz, but Ryan Oakes came through and took out the Georgia State forward. It was a clear-cut penalty that Stephen McGill calmly scored.
Only two minutes later, a long throw-in from the Panthers found Ayokunle Lumpkin, whose header hit the crossbar and bounced over the net to tie the game at two. The stadium was silent, barring the ecstatic Georgia State team.
“I don’t know what it is,” captain Tommy Webb said. “Maybe a bit of complacency creeping in.”
As the team walked off the field to prepare for overtime, the coaches and captains were vehemently reminding the team that the game was not over and they very much still expected to get the three points.
“I was telling them get the momentum, get at them and try to put them away early,” Webb said.
It seemed the Monarchs were going to put them away very early, Asante broke through the defense immediately after the kickoff, and was unlucky to stumble over the ball and only shoot it straight to the keeper.
Asante may have missed that chance, but he made up for it only minutes later when he brilliantly beat two defenders and slid the ball across the face of the goal for Hopkinson to score.
“I thought Gideon was gonna cut it back but he played it across,” Hopkinson said. “And I just thought I could get there, and then I knew I was gonna beat the defender there and just put it in.”
The goal sent the Monarchs’ bench into an uproar as they sprinted to surround Hopkinson in the corner. The Georgia State players collapsed on the field in defeat.
The Monarchs left it late and have plenty to work on, but ultimately, they walked away with three points and continue to string the results together.
“This was a real tough CAA game,” Dawson said. “But my whole thing with them is they came out in OT and they grabbed the momentum of the game and got the winner.”
The win sent the Monarchs into a tie at the top of the CAA with James Madison. The Monarchs travel to the Dukes on Oct. 26.
photos taken by Marlie De Clerck
