Kennedy hosted both Cedar Falls and its 42nd Street rival Xavier on Saturday on the first weekend of MVC double header matches.
In the first match the Cougars completed a stunning comeback, down 2-0 with 7 minutes left in the game, by scoring 2 goals in the final 6:50 in the second half and then scoring the winner just 2:48 into the first overtime period. The Tigers took the lead off a dubious penalty kick call in the 20th minute. With Kennedy reeling over the call, Cedar Falls scored just a minute later on a shot from 30 yards out that skidded by senior goalkeeper Tyler Sievertsen and into the far post. The Cougars dominated the play, but continued a trend of missing chances that has plagued their early season games.
In the second half Kennedy came out with a renewed fervor and was all over the Tigers. Yet with all the pressure, and chances to score falling by the wayside, it looked as though the Cougars were heading to their second straight defeat. Then in the 74th minute, senior forward Chris Bruns gathered a ball about 40 yards from goal, turned, beat his defender and unleashed a vicious shot to the back post. While the Cedar Falls goalkeeper had made numerous acrobatic stops in the second half, he could not handle this one and the rebound fell to the feet of junior midfielder Phil Vermie. Vermie chopped the rebound in over the helpless goalkeeper to cut the lead to 2-1. Then with time seemingly going to run out on Kennedy, it got a corner kick with 20 seconds remaining. the kick went a little long and was flicked back across the goal by junior defender Ben Haas. The ball fell right in front of fellow junior forward Erik Boyer, and he did not miss from that range, tying the game at two with 9.7 seconds on the clock.
The Cougars wasted no time finishing the amazing comeback. In the first overtime they kept the ball and earned a corner kick. The kick came into the area and was flicked towards the back post by sophomore defender Nick Bruns. His flick found his brother, senior forward Chris Bruns, who hammered the ball into the roof of the net for the win, 3-2.
In the second game of the day, Kennedy faced their rival Xavier. Xavier had an easy 4-1 win in the morning and had been looking forward to getting revenge on the Cougars for their loss last season, 2-1 in penalty kicks. But Kennedy took control of the game and with the exception of a few shots from distance, the Saints never threatened the Cougar goal. Kennedy manufactured a few chances, but were getting more and more tired from the morning's match. By the last 15 minutes of the second half, an exhausted Cougar line-up began playing balls longer and got away from their possession game that had control of the match. The game evened out and the remainder of the match saw both teams attack, neither getting good scoring chances, and hold on in the defensive end. After two overtimes the game went into penalties to determine the winner.
Kennedy and Xavier both scored their respective first kicks, but the Cougars second kick missed wide right and the Saints had the advantage. Each team kept making kicks and it cam down to the fifth and final kicker for Xavier, if he made it the Saints would win. That was when freshman goalkeeper Ben Feltes, in the game as the penalty kick specialist, stepped up and saved Kennedy. He read the kick right and made a diving stop to his right to force the match into sudden death kicks. Each team's sixth kicker made, then after the Cougars seventh kick went in it was Feltes that had the stage again. The kick hit the post and came out and Kennedy won the match, 1-0, 6-5 in penalties.
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