MARION, Ind. -- No. 18-ranked Indiana Wesleyan University earned a rematch with Spring Arbor (Mich.) in the Crossroads League Men’s Soccer Tournament Championship Match next Saturday at Wildcat Field.

No. 1-seed Indiana Wesleyan defeated No. 4-seed Bethel (Ind.) 4-2 tonight and No. 3-seed Spring Arbor finished off No. 2-seed Saint Francis (Ind.) 1-0 to bring the two programs together to the championship match for the second straight season. Spring Arbor won the match in overtime last year to advance to the NAIA National Tournament.

“It was a good result for us,” said Indiana Wesleyan head coach Mark Castro. “We knew going into this that it was going to be a war, a battle. That’s how it is with Bethel and it is never easy.”

Indiana Wesleyan (13-3-3) came out and looked unstoppable in the first 10 minutes of the contests. IWU fired off five shots in the opening minutes and Corey Lopez scored on one of the opportunities in the ninth minute with the assist going to Geoff Bowman.

“We started the game very fast and scored pretty quickly on,” said Castro. “Our strikers were very dangerous getting around them on the outside and creating goal scoring opportunities.”

Bethel (7-10-1) regrouped and tied the match 1-1 on a goal by Ricardo Zambonino in the 25th minute and then took the lead 10 minutes later off a score from Lukas Muszong.

“Unfortunately I think we took our foot off the gas after we scored that first goal,” continued Castro. “Bethel got in a bit of a rhythm and our strikers weren’t as dangerous as they were early on.”

Indiana Wesleyan quickly tied the score at 2-2 as Tad Glibert headed home a cross from Bowman just 94 seconds after Bethel took the lead. Bowman was not done with his two assists in the first half. He would knock home a goal of his own in the 42nd minute which spurred Indiana Wesleyan to a 3-2 halftime lead.

The Wildcats were able to get a huge insurance goal early in the second half to claim a 4-2 advantage. Keaton Albert found the back of the net from an assist from Jacob Beerman in the 52nd minute. Following six combined goals in 52 minutes, neither team would score over the final 38 minutes.

Bethel pushed most of their team forward during the final 15 minutes desperate to keep their season alive. But Indiana Wesleyan was ready for the pressure and limited the Bethel opportunities.

“We had worked on that this week,” Castro said of a defensive stand. “We put five guys back and we wanted to decrease any of the gaps between our backs. We didn’t want Bethel to go through us and if they were going to try to get behind us it was going to have to be over the top. And we have a lot of tall guys who are really good at winning 50-50 balls.”

Indiana Wesleyan and Bethel each took 12 shots tonight while IWU held the 8-5 advantage in shots on goal. Indiana Wesleyan keeper Josh Goepper made three saves on five chances in net.

Indiana Wesleyan is now a single victory away from making the program’s first ever trip to the NAIA National Tournament. Indiana Wesleyan and Spring Arbor will square off at 7 p.m. next Saturday at Wildcat Field with a national tournament berth on the line.