Wabash came within a second of going into the penalty-kick shootout its semifinal match of the 2018 North Coast Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Tournament match against at Kenyon College Wednesday afternoon. The Little Giant held the seventh-best scoring offense in Division III without a goal until the final second of double overtime before falling 1-0 to the 14^th-ranked Lords.
 
Kenyon (15-1-2) scored the golden goal 109:59 into the match when Bret Lowry fired a shot into the net from the right side of the box on a crossing pass from Greg McNeer.
 
Wabash (12-4-3) held the top seed in the tournament scoreless until that final play. Kenyon entered the game averaging 3.65 goals a game. The Lords' 62 goals in the regular season were the sixth-most among DIII teams.
 
"I'm extremely proud of our effort in the game today and how everyone played," Wabash head coach Chris Keller said. "Everyone left their all on the field. We went toe to toe with a fantastic Kenyon team. We were just really unfortunate to not make it into the penalty kicks. You never know. A penalty kick shootout can go either way.
 
"I'm just disappointed that we played well enough to have a shot in penalty kicks and ended up seconds away from maybe getting the opportunity. We have a lot to work on to step up to the next level. We'll be back and we'll be stronger."
 
Kenyon held the advantage in shots on the final scoresheet, firing 19 total attempts and five shots on goal compared to one try for Wabash --- a shot on goal by Corbin Kaiser in the second period. Chad Wunderlich turned away four shot attempts by Kenyon, including one in overtime before the game-winner by Lowry slipped by to send Kenyon to Saturday's championship game against either Denison or Ohio Wesleyan. The sophomore goalkeeper set a Wabash single-season record for goals-against-average at 0.84 for the season, eclipsing the mark of 0.85 set by Dayton Jennings in 2016. Wunderlich tied for the school record for shutouts in a season with nine to match the total by Jennings in 2015.
 
Wabash tied for third in the NCAC standings and earned the fourth seed in the tournament after losing a tiebreaker with Denison. The Little Giants earned a berth in the tournament for the third consecutive season. Wabash lost in overtime in last year's semifinal match at Ohio Wesleyan by a score of 3-2.
 
The 2018 Wabash team tied the school record for lowest goals-against-average with a mark of 0.84 and matched the second-highest wins total in school history with 12.
 
"I'm proud of seniors Christian Stiverson and Jacques Boulais for their performance today in their final collegiate match and I'm even more proud of seniors Collin Luckey and Max Lawson and the way they worked every day and trained hard. They are great examples of how you can work hard and provide great support for the team even though they didn't see a lot of field time. They're what this program is all about. We all fight for each other. They're great examples for the underclassmen to follow."