The two players that have carried Valparaiso’s offense all season showed off their prowess for finding the back of the net against the Panthers Monday night, as the duo combined to score all of the Crusaders goals.

Coming into the game, sophomore Adan Garcia and junior Rafael Mentzingen were first and second in goals scored, respectively, for the Crusaders with seven and six goals a piece. After the game however, they were tied.

Mentzigen and Garcia were kept quiet for the first half of the game, but it is difficult for even a defense like Eastern’s to keep an attacking combo like them out of the game for long.

“Defensively we had a great first half and a second half where we left ourselves exposed a few times that hurt us,” Eastern head coach Kiki Lara said. “Valpo has some quality attacking players and we did not do enough to contain them in half two.”

Mentzigen scored the first of Valparaiso’s three unanswered goals in the game, taking away Eastern’s 1-0 lead in the 54th minute of the game, assisted by non-other than Garcia on the play.

Eastern scored its only goal by way of redshirt sophomore Christian Sosnoswki getting his first goal of the season in the 41st minute of the game. He was assisted by Tyler Enright.

Garcia worked solo on his goal. He scored on a penalty kick in the 68th minute of the game, giving Valparaiso a 2-1 lead in the game. It gave him his eighth goal of the season and a temporary lead over Mentzigen for the team lead.

Down 2-1 with 36 minutes to play, Eastern’s Kris Luke did what he could to bring his team back into the game, firing off two shots within two minutes of each other in the 54th and 56th minutes of the game, however both shots missed their marks.

Mentzigen capped off his showcase game with two minutes to play in regulation when he sealed the game at 3-1 scoring his 8th goal of the season unassisted after he broke free and scored from 18-yards out.

Mentzigen finished with a game-high seven shots on goal and two goals. Garcia had one shot, one goal and one assist.

Lara noted the quality of Mentzigen and Garcia while also taking notice of the consistency they have shown over the season.

The Panthers were led on offense by Luke who finished with four of the team’s six shots. Overall, Valparaiso outshot Eastern 14-6.

A non-conference matchup, the loss has little ramifications on the rest of the Panthers season, but it did drop their overall record to 3-8-6 on the season.

This will be the last non-conference game the Panthers will play before Nov. 4 when they will play in their pivotal final game of the season against Summit League opponent Fort Wayne.

After the game Lara told his team to stay focused on their objectives, highlighting that beating Fort Wayne on Saturday was their main goal.

“We scored a great team goal and we did so with a lot of understanding of our roles. Also, we played very well from the beginning to the end of the first half,” Lara said. “(We) need to put two halves together for the final match and maintain focus.”

JJ Bullock can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]