With more than 700 minutes of scoreless soccer staring his team in the face, Calvin College sophomore Kurt Visker swung his powerful right foot and let loose with a blast.
Visker's shot flew long and true, clanging in off the inside of the far post and into the net, past the out-stretched arms of Kalamazoo senior goaltender Nick Carlin-Voigt.
Calvin's scoreless streak of 703 minutes against Kalamazoo dating back to 1999 was over and soon after, so was its seven-game losing streak against the Hornets.
Visker's dramatic shot on a direct kick from 35 yards out with just 17:02 left in regulation proved to be the difference in Calvin's 1-0 victory over Kalamazoo in a battle of regionally-ranked teams Wednesday afternoon at Calvin Field. The Visker goal was Calvin's first against Kalamazoo since a game-winning overtime goal by Calvin's Todd Folkert in a 2-1 win in 1999 - a stretch of 703 minutes.
Prior to Wednesday's game, the Hornets (10-3-2 overall, 6-2-0 MIAA) had handed Calvin seven straight shutout defeats.
Calvin's victory on Wednesday allowed the Knights to stretch their win streak to seven games this fall while also allowing the Maroon and Gold to up their record to 8-0 at home in 2003. The shutout was also Calvin's fifth shutout victory of the year including its fourth (all by a 1-0 score) in MIAA play this fall.
Most importantly, the victory allowed Calvin to move into a tie with Kalamazoo in the conference standings as both teams have 12 points. Hope (6-1-1 MIAA) sits a point ahead of Calvin and Kalamazoo but the Knights have played one less conference game than each school.
Ranked fourth in the latest NSCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional rankings, Calvin (11-4-0 overall, 6-1-0 MIAA) had nearly scored on two separate occasions in the second half prior to Visker's goal in the 73rd minute. Senior Geol Scheirman (Broomfield, CO) came close in the 66th minute, unleashing a shot from the left side of the box that Carlin-Voigt was able to deflect over the goal. Five minutes later, Carlin-Voigt was forced to come well out of the Kalamazoo box to defend a rush up the left wing by Calvin sophomore Matt Cosnek (Hopewell, PA). Cosnek was able to unleash a shot past the Kalamazoo goaltender that appeared headed for the back of the net. At the last second, a Kalamazoo defender blocked the ball, inches short of the goal-line and then trapped the ball near his feet, setting up a wild scrum for the ball that ended with the Hornets finally the clearing the ball out of danger.
With time ticking down, Calvin was awarded a free kick along the far right sideline in Kalamazoo territory. Visker then stepped up and delivered, whistling a low shot that curled around a pack of defenders and clanged in off the post, setting off a wild Calvin celebration.
"I was just shooting for the far post and hoping one of our guys could come up with a rebound," said the soft-spoken sophomore sweeper from Grand Rapids Christian High School. "I was pretty excited to see the ball go in."
So were his teammates who helped fend off Kalamazoo's final attempts to tie the game that included three corner kick opportunities in the final nine minutes.
"The one thing that I know for certain is that my boys will keep fighting until the final horn," said Calvin coach Chris Hughes. "As a coach, that gives you a lot of confidence in your team. When we came close but didn't score, I knew our guys would keep coming back and they did. This was a great victory for Calvin College."
Calvin finished the game with a slim 12-11 shots at goal advantage with sophomore goaltender Joe Westra (Grand Rapids Christian HS) collecting three saves in gaining his fifth shutout victory of the season while dropping his goals-against-average to 0.97. Carlin-Voigt had two saves in defeat for the Hornets, ranked third in the Great Lakes Region.
Calvin will now turn its attention to a Saturday match at Albion slated to start at noon. A year ago, Albion handed a visiting Calvin team a 1-0 defeat, scoring on its first shot of the game.
