What happens when you mix two rival programs who are currently 1st and 2nd in the conference standings together on a perfect night by Reeds lake? One of the most excieing soccer matches you could hope to witnes. 

The Eagles traveled to Meheny field at EGR on Tuesday night for their second game in 2 days to face the second place Pioneers in the final match of the OK White regular season. The Eagles came in 6-0 in the conference while the Pioneers entered the match 4-0-2. Both undefeated teams treated the capacity crowd to a thrilling 80-minutes of soccer. 

The Pioneers scored early on a free kick that found the corner of the net early in the game. The gritty Eagles team fought back in minutes with senior Ben Kuiper scoring off a thrown in from senior Drew deBoer to level the game. The Eagles then jumped in front beofre half-time when senior Nick Cassiday scored, making it 2-1. 

As the second half started, so did the scoring fireworks. EGR leveled the game on a scramble in the box, then took a 3-2 lead over the Eagles, converting on a corner kick with about 15 minutes to go. The Eagles struck back when junior Jonah Knoester made an overlapping run and crossed a ball in front of the EGR net that caused confusion and ended in an own-goal, making the score 3-3. The lead changed again in favor of the Eagles when senior Hans Pruis flicked a pass up and over an EGR defender at midfield before playing the ball into Cassiday who converted for his 2nd goal of the match, putting the Eagles up 4-3 with less than 10 minutes to play. The Eagles conceded a corner kick with less than 5 minutes left that a dangerous EGR team converted again, leveling the score at 4-4. Neither team was able to break through in the final moments, resulting in a tie. 

This back and forth match included 4 lead changes and a total of 5 goals in the final 40 minutes. The Eagles enter the OK White conference tournament as the #1 seed and EGR enters as the #2 seed, setting up a potential rematch in the confernce tournament finals. 

The Eagles wrap-up their regular season with a trip to Holland Christian on Thursday evening (7:15 kick-off) before beginning conference tournament play next Monday at Eagle Stadium (7:30 pm kick-off)