By Ron Smith
December 3, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) Westmont Men's Soccer's (13-3-1) journey into the postseason came to an abrupt end in the second round of the NAIA National Championship. The Warriors fell to Hastings of Neb. (18-2-3) by a score of 2-0.
 
"We weren't very good in the final third of the field," said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. "Once we got to the final third, it was either forced, or there was a lack of quality. There was no real possession or chance creation. I don't know how much to attribute that to our journey and the challenge of this situation that we have been in.
 
"It has been a strange month, for sure. It felt like this night was never going to arrive. When it finally did, you wondered what it was going to look like with only one competitive game in a month. It has been tricky."
 
The game remained scoreless until the 68th minute when Lukas Goetz, scored on a cross from Tom Steging. The two teamed up for another goal in the 90th minute when Westmont had pulled players forward in an attempt to score before time expired.
 
Among those sent forward was center back Tim Heiduk.
 
"Tim is a player who is comfortable in the final third of the field," noted Wolf. "He has played there a lot during the course of his career with different teams and at different levels. He has a knack for coming up with big plays. So we thought, 'Let's give him an opportunity to be in that part of the field for the final 10 minutes.' Not only does he have the ability to pull stuff like that off, but as a senior, he would want to have the opportunity to do everything in his power to pull the game level."
 
The loss brought an end to one of the most successful season in Warrior history.
 
"It has been a remarkable year," noted Wolf. "It will take some time to unpack it in all its depth. In some ways it was a very surprising year, in some ways very satisfying, in some ways a direct response to very difficult and challenging things we went through last year. Which also, ironically, ended on this field.
 
"The team fought their way from a long ways back. If I go back to last November and I think about the things that they invested in the past 12 months, it is come kind of body of work. It wasn't just this fall. It was last spring, the summer and then this fall. The invested an awful lot in this experience and, I think, got a lot out of it."