By James Summerlin
Rainer Hauss, sophomore mechanical engineering major, made his own save stand after scoring the final shootout goal to advance the Bulldogs to the semifinals of the TranSouth tournament, but Union’s season ended after falling short to Bethel 6–0 in McKenzie.
In the first round of the TranSouth tournament, Union pulled out a victory in dramatic fashion over Lyon College, after winning a 5–4 shootout, and a 1–1 tie after two overtimes.
In the seventh minute of the first half, Lyon struck first with a goal by Serhiy Zhykin. Union did find the back of the net in the first half with the equalizer as time was winding down in the first half. Brian Castro, freshman athletic training major, scored Union’s only goal in regulation with 33 seconds left to go in the first half.
At the start the second half, Union played with 10 men after Krister Andreassen, freshman sports management major, received a red card. After a scoreless second half and two 10-minute overtime periods, the game went to penalty shots.
Union made good on each of their penalty shots in the shootout, including the last one by Hauss for the win.
“I knew I would score,” Hauss said. “I knew from the beginning.”
Hauss saved the first shot in the shootout taken by Lyon’s Robert Hall, as well as six saves during the game. Union outshot Lyon 18–12, but only had five shots on goal to Lyon’s seven.
In the semifinals against Bethel, Union found no way to stop the Wildcat’s speedy scoring attack, including Mario Vila Boa, who scored a hat trick from six shots, four of them on goal to contribute to the 6 goals scored by the Wildcats.
Union could not produce anything offensively as Bethel had possession for the majority of the contest and outshot Union in total shots 22–5 and also had an advantage in shots on goal, leading 11–2.
With the win, Bethel will host Martin Methodist on Friday for the TranSouth tournament title and an automatic bid to the NAIA tournament. The Wildcats are undefeated in TranSouth games.
Union ended its season with a 13–4 regular season record with a 4–3 record in conference play. The Bulldogs finished fourth in the TranSouth regular season standings.
Diego Santos, freshman business management major, led the Bulldogs in goals this season with 10 on 20 shots on goal.
