The slimmest of margins.  It's a sports cliche', but anyone watching the NCAA III men's soccer sectional (final sixteen) matchup between UW-Whitewater and Calvin College Friday night at J.J. Keller Field in Titan Stadium in Oshkosh, Wisconsin is a believer.  Calvin and Whitewater tied 1-1 through two overtimes, and the teams traded shootout kicks through eight straight, both teams making every attempt, until Calvin prevailed on the ninth, advancing with the tie and the decisive 9-8 shootout.

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There were only two shots on goal, total, in the first period -- and both of them found the back of the net.  Whitewater made the most of its opportunity, with Dan Montanye (Mukwonago/Mukwonago) taking a free kick about 25 yards out to the left of the Calvin goal.  The low line drive into the box was taken by Ryan Richgels (Madison/Memorial) who booted the ball into the lower right corner of the net at 16:15.  Calvin's Mike Sanderson centered the ball from deep in the left corner all the way to the opposite side of the box where Tyler Vegter headed it in at 25:30. 

Again, in the second half, the teams combined for two shots on goal.  The first shot of the second period, by Calvin's Chris Nance at 47:31, was as close to going in as a ball can be without actually scoring.  The shot caromed off the inside of the left post and back into the field of play.  Montanye put the ball on net at 48:50, but Calvin keeper Ryan Bratt made the save. 

There were no shots on goal in the first overtime.  In the second, Montanye almost came through his third game winner of the season, but with just 0:59 left was stopped by Bratt.

That set up the shootout, and Whitewater took the first shot in each pair.  Both teams tied in the first five, making all five.  Then in the extra shots they both made their first three.  It wasn't until the ninth extra shot that UW-W missed, and Calvin's Miles Colago ended it with a shot that deflected off the UW-W keeper's hand.

This was just the second time the schools had met on a soccer field, with UW-W winning the previous meeting 5-2 during the 2003 regular season.  Calvin advanced to the NCAA III championship game last year, finishing as the runnerup to Messiah College.

Twice before in ten appearances in the NCAA III tournament the Warhawks have been involved in shootouts.  The Warhawks advanced in 2001, tying Marian University 0-0 in the second round, but capturing the shootout 8-7 -- until tonight the longest any game had lasted in UW-W history.  UW-W was also involved in a shootout in 2002, with two overtime periods failing to break a 1-1 tie with Macalester College and the Scots moving on with a 3-1 edge in the shootout.

Whitewater was also no stranger to playing extra soccer this season.  The Warhawks tied Clarke University 2-2 September 5, suffered their first loss of the year to North Park 2-1, and tied UW-Oshkosh 1-1 October 30.  All three games went into the second overtime, with the Clarke and Oshkosh contests going the full extra ten minutes in the second OT.

Whitewater's season ended 14-2-4.  The 14 victories compiled by the 2010 squad ties the third highest victory total in school history, as does the teams' winning percentage of .800.  UW-W added its second Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title to its 2010 resume'.  The Warhawks easily broke the school record for goals allowed per game, 0.52, well under the previous mark 0.93 by the 1980 team.