FENTON, Mo. - Webster University and Washington University in St. Louis turned their 29th all-time meeting in men's soccer into an instant classic here late Wednesday evening as the Gorloks and Bears battled for a little over 105 minutes without a score until the visitors scored off a loose ball in the box in the 105th minute to earn a 1-0 non-conference win in double overtime at World Wide Technology Soccer Park.
With the setback, Webster falls to 5-2-1 overall on the season, while WashU improved to 4-2-1 on the season. Wednesday's meeting was the first between the two schools since 2017 and the 29th all-time time against the schools that are both located about five miles apart on Big Bend Boulevard.
Wednesday's match as the second double overtime contest this season for the Gorloks as they picked up a 1-1 tie in double overtime at home against Rhodes College on Sept. 6.
In Wednesday's match, the Gorloks defense was outstanding as despite allowing 31 shots and 10 shots on goal, the Gorloks defense continued to make big plays when they needed them to keep the Bears off the scoreboard and force two overtime periods.
The Bears were finally able to break the scoreless tie in the 105th minute as Makio Yamamoto took a loose ball in the box and scored the game winning goal past junior goalkeeper
Matt Amick (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh). Yamamoto's shot scored after Amick mishandled a cross from Michael Gemmell and that allowed Yamamoto to kick in the only goal of the match.
Webster's back-end defenders - senior
Justin Schmidt (St. Louis, Mo./Metro), junior
Cameron Killian (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh), junior
Dylan Jannin (Perryville, Mo./Perryville) and sophomore
Tanner Haugen (Jefferson City, Mo./Jefferson City) - played all 105 minutes in the match and continually prevented the Bears from finding the goal and keep the Gorloks in the match.
The Gorloks, who had its four match win streak snapped with Wednesday's loss, finished with six shots on the night, including junior forward
Ben Aziz (Paris, France/Marquette) and sophomore midfielder
Isaac Pearson (St. Louis, Mo./Maplewood-Richmond Heights) each had two of those shots. None of WU's six shots, though, were on goal.
In the first overtime period, WashU appeared to be heading to a win as a shot by Will Sproule in the first 53 seconds was cleared out for a team save and then in the 95th minute, the Gorloks looked like they were going to win, but a shot from Aziz went just wide right to keep the score tied.
The Bears put another shot on goal in the 101st minute that went wide left, before Yakamoto's game winning goal.
WashU took 10 shots in the first half and had 16 shots after halftime. In the overtime periods, WashU held a 5-1 edge in shots.
Julian Gancman and Sean Connors each had six shots, while Yakamoto had five shots and Sproule added four shots in the win.
The Bears held a 14-3 edge in corner kicks, while Webster committed 13 fouls to WashU's nine fouls.
Amick (2-2-1) took the loss in net for the Gorloks as he made nine saves and allowed one goal.
Matt Martin (4-2-1) didn't face any shots on goal in the 104-plus minutes of action.
Webster will close out the non-conference portion of its 2019 schedule on Saturday, Sept. 28 as they travel to Angola, Ind., for a 12 p.m. CDT match against Trine University.
