MARION, Ind. -- With everything to gain tonight the Indiana Wesleyan University men’s soccer team used the head of Corey Lopez for a golden goal victory over Spring Arbor (Mich.) to clinch a share of the Crossroads League regular season championship.

Indiana Wesleyan earned a corner kick opportunity in the first overtime to set up the game-winning score with 2:42 on the scoreboard. Senior Geoff Bowman took the kick and one of the shortest players on the field in Lopez was able to make first contact with the ball and head it past the Spring Arbor keeper for the golden goal to clinch the league championship.

“Geoff centered it and I went up and I anticipated the goalie and I anticipated the defenders,” said Lopez. “I just got a head on it. I didn’t really see how I headed it in but I just saw it in the back of the net. It felt like a dream come true.”

Saturday was the final day of the regular season and Indiana Wesleyan, Spring Arbor, and Saint Francis (Ind.) were all tied for first place in the Crossroads League with 18 points. Saint Francis defeated Huntington (Ind.) 2-1 earlier in the day forcing both Indiana Wesleyan and Spring Arbor to earn a result to gain a share of the title.

Indiana Wesleyan and Saint Francis share the league title with 21 points although they got there in very different ways. IWU did not lose a league match all season with a 6-0-3 mark while Saint Francis went 7-2-0. Indiana Wesleyan earns the No. 1-seed in the upcoming league tournament courtesy of their 2-0 head-to-head win over USF on September 21.

“I am very pleased and proud of our guys tonight,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Mark Castro. “We wanted to position ourselves to be able to win the Crossroads League regular season for the second straight time. Obviously that is very important to us to be able to get that tonight and to secure home field advantage throughout the tournament.”

Indiana Wesleyan opens the Crossroads League Tournament next Saturday and will host No. 8-seed Marian (Ind.) at Wildcat Field. Marian defeated Bethel (Ind.) 4-3 on Friday to secure a spot in the postseason tournament.

Spring Arbor (10-7-1, 6-3-0) struck first tonight with a goal late in the first half. Riley Luttenton headed home a crossing pass from Joel Musambi in the 42nd minute and took the 1-0 lead into halftime.

The Cougars’ lead lasted until the 67th minute when the Wildcats created the equalizer. Keaton Albert raced down to the end line and turned towards the goal. His crossing pass found its way right in front of the SAU net after multiple feet, plus the keeper, whiffed on the ball. Bowman was able to get an awkward looking foot on the ball but it was all that was needed to deflect the ball into the net for the 1-1 tie.

“Being down a goal at halftime and being able to show the character to come from behind was great,” said Castro. “We felt like we could have won it earlier, but as our season has been all year it is to have all these opportunities and not finish with a good enough ratio. But in this particular case Geoff took the corner kick in overtime and Corey headed it in.”

Indiana Wesleyan outshot Spring Arbor 15-9 on the evening and held an 8-2 advantage on shots on goal. Josh Goepper earned the victory in net with one save on two opportunities.

In a pregame ceremony, Indiana Wesleyan celebrated 11 seniors that are a part of the program, 10 players and 1 manager. Castro had a written statement on each player and the family was presented with gifts. The recognized seniors were:  Geoff Bowman, Logan Bronkema, Thomas Canfield, Tad Glibert, Zach Hammon, Jordan Heer, Kris Jacobs, Steve Melhorn, Luis Orozco, Cody Reaves, and Josh Schultz.