SPENCERVILLE – Mother Nature might have taken her best shot at ruining the night but the Bearcats survived the monsoon and downed visiting Allen East 3-2 in a Monday evening NWC soccer matchup.
Allen East controlled the opening minutes of the contest and sent multiple shots toward Spencerville keeper Dominic Adkins but were unable to dent the Memorial Field scoreboard through the first ten minutes until Braylen Kennedy headed in a bouncing ball off of the turf past Adkins for a 1-0 Mustang lead.
Moments before the storms rolled through Spencerville the Bearcats best opportunity of the first half came on a foul against the Mustangs but were unable to turn a Will Gallaspie kick into a goal and found themselves behind at the halftime stoppage 1-0.
After the break both teams found themselves battling not only one another but a downpour on the turf that made both field positioning and footing both hard to come by.
Spencerville’s Joel Van Gorder tied the game at 1-1 with 27:36 left in the second half of play as he took in a pass from Gallaspie and raced past the Mustang defenders to fire a shot into the back of the Allen East net.
Isaiah Stewart gave the hosts a 2-1 lead with 14:37 when he raced a hard shot from the left side of the box into the goal on a crosser into the top right corner for his fourth marker of the season.
Allen East got to even at 2-2 with 9:21 to go in the game thanks to Spencerville being caught out of position near their own goal on a shot from the backside as Kannon Ruble blitzed a shot into the net behind Dominic Adkins to tie the game.
Just over three minutes later and with 6:03 before the horn the Bearcats notched the go ahead and ultimately game winning goal from leading scorer Will Gallaspie who extended his own school record for goals in a season by racing from end to end through the rain and the Mustang defense for a score.
Allen East (6-7-1) will begin their tournament run by hosting Fort Jennings on October 21st while the Bearcats (8-2-2) host Botkins on Thursday evening to finish off the regular season before beginning their own postseason run by hosting Temple Christian on October 21st at Memorial Field.