ELON, N.C. – Graduate forward
Victor Stromsten has played soccer since he was five years old. Until Elon's historic rally Saturday night, he had never seen a comeback of such proportions.
"I don't even know. It still stumps you a little bit," Stromsten said.
On the road against CAA foe Delaware, the Elon University men's soccer team struggled for an opener for the first half hour, but it was the Blue Hens who opened the scoring in the 32nd minute. Delaware struck again seven minutes later and then five minutes into the second half, digging the Phoenix into a 3-0 hole.
But Elon – yet to lose or draw in five games heading into the Delaware matchup – was not ready to give up.
"I remember looking over at Scott [Vatne], 3-0 down, and he had this look, like, 'Dude, this is not over. It's time to shape up.' We never felt defeated," Stromsten said.
In Elon's Division I history, it had never come back from a second-half three-goal deficit to win. The team in maroon wasn't thinking about that.
"We scored two goals in five minutes numerous times this season at the start of a game," Stromsten said. "Why not do it towards the end of the game?"
In the 66th minute, junior forward Colin Veltri slotted home a left-footed shot at the near post, assisted by a curling ball over the top from redshirt junior midfielder
Ryan Manna. In the 68th minute, the Phoenix thought it had a second goal back, but the linesman ruled the goal to have been offsides. Shortly after, head coach
Marc Reeves was ejected for the remainder of the match.
Unshaken by Reeves' sending off, the Phoenix continued to press for goals. Moments later, in the 70th minute, Vatne curled a free kick beneath the Delaware wall that trickled into the far post for 3-2. With 20 minutes to play, Elon was storming back.
"I really felt it when I was coming on in the second half for Petro [Klishch]...He was running around like crazy and giving all he could. Small stuff like that really keeps you on edge," Stromsten said.
In the 70th minute, the Phoenix seemed to be back on the ropes when junior midfielder and lead captain Mac Msabaha received his second yellow card and was sent off. But moments later, Stromsten threaded a through ball to a diagonal run from sophomore midfielder
Jahmir Flowers, who deked the Delaware keeper and brought the Phoenix level. This time, the linesman's flag remained down, and with 18 minutes to play, Elon possessed the momentum.
The men in maroon continued to press, and in the 80th minute, Stromsten found himself bolting towards goal with only the keeper between him and the back of the net. He patiently held the ball up upon reaching the box and sent a defender tumbling to find Veltri for a guaranteed finish that put the Phoenix on top.
"I was celebrating and so happy, but I couldn't bring myself to feel relaxed or contented in any way, shape or form, because that's how you lose the game," Stromsten said. "With nine minutes left, you don't really sense relief. You get one goal, get two goals, three goals, four goals, and you can't stop there."
His legs ready to give out, Stromsten pressed hard for three more minutes before signaling to the bench that he couldn't run any longer. He credited his teammates who came on in the closing moments of the game for bringing energy that the Phoenix ultimately needed to slam the door.
"We have people coming on like Ryan Buckon and
Noah Sonne Kargo at the end, and they both played six minutes at the end of the game, but they were almost puking at the end," Stromsten said. "You're just running as hard as you can, pressing as hard as you can, and that's not an easy job to come on at the end of that game.
"Everyone gave their all, whether they were on the bench, out in the car park, on the field, it's a collective effort, and everyone really stepped up and gave everything they could," Stromsten added. "I'm very, very proud to be part of it."
The miraculous comeback win improved the Phoenix to 6-0-0 on the season, its second-best start in Division I history. With its captain and head coach suspended a game for their red cards, Elon takes its No. 10 national ranking to another road test against Wake Forest (2-2-0) on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
"It's an opportunity for people that might have had limited minutes or have had no minutes to step up and prove what they can do," Stromsen said. "We have a lot of good players, whether or not you have seen them on the field yet, or if you have only seen them for a little bit of time, we have a lot of people that can do a lot of amazing things."
'Rising Phoenix' is a student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on X (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Chase Strawser at cstrawser@elon.edu.
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