Lopes knock off No. 12 Wisconsin

Friday, August 24

Phoenix, Ariz.

7 p.m.

Grand Canyon

1-0

Wisconsin

0-1

Wisconsin

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Slaven Gujic

8/24/2018 10:29:00 PM | Men's Soccer, Paul Coro

Box Score Photo Gallery

Crowd of 6,648 watches GCU win opener 2-1

By: <a href="http://gculopes.com/index.aspx?path=coro">Paul Coro</a>

From every periphery, the Grand Canyon students rushed the GCU Stadium field and jostled the Lopes men's soccer players at midfield like laundry in a washing machine.

GCU, a team with more newcomers than returners, just had toppled 12th-ranked Wisconsin 2-1 with a record Arizona collegiate crowd of 6,648 fans there to witness possibly the best regular-season win in the athletic program's Division I era.

The Lopes surprised the soccer nation and even their head coach, Schellas Hyndman, by dominating the first half and holding off the Big Ten champions in each team's season opener.

"I didn't expect you to have this good of a game," Hyndman told his team after the win. "You proved to me that you're a team of good character and you'll fight for each other."

GCU students encased the field's north, east and south sides, filling The Platform with Havocs' bodies and noise and covering the grass berms elsewhere. Hyndman and players credited the crowd for carrying them but the Lopes gave the fans reason to make noise when they scored goals within 98 seconds in the first half.

Each scoring effort showed remarkable back-to-front continuity for a team with so many new players and a starting freshman forward, Calvin Kissi, who missed training camp due to injury.

Sophomore Josh Drack, a Preseason All-WAC pick, sparked the first goal when he started a ball upfield to sophomore Marco Afonso, who dropped it wider left to senior Alex Ramirez. His touch pass finished the give-and-go with Afonso, who sent the ball in front of the goal for senior Alex Radilla to tap into the net with his left foot.

It put GCU ahead 1-0 in the 24th minute, not long after a missed opportunity with Drack's penalty kick hitting off the right post.

The celebratory smoke barely had cleared before the goal cannon fired again with Ramirez getting his second assist.

Ramirez booted the ball 70 yards across the field to set up the second goal by Kissi. Atop the left side of the box, Kissi outmuscled one Badger to receive the ball, high-kicked the ball to himself and took a shove in the chest from another Badger before he kicked it past a third Badger into the goal for a 2-0 lead.

"He gave us an opportunity to say, 'Hey, Niki Jackson is gone. Now we begin with Calvin Kissi,' " Hyndman said with Jackson, the Lope-turned-MLS pro on hand. "I thought that Calvin's goal was outstanding."

Kissi, a strong 18-year-old from Ghana, showed great potential as a frontline teammate with Drack, last season's WAC Freshman of the Year.

"This surpassed all my expectations by far," Kissi said. "Lope family is amazing. They give you that extra lift. I'm excited to be here. The more time Josh and I get together, the better we're going to be."

Wisconsin scored in the 58th minute to make it a 2-1 Lopes lead. Despite a more even second half, the Lopes still had more scoring chances with a 16-6 shot advantage for the game and a 10-6 corner kick edge.

"A lot of it was revenge in the first place," Ramirez said. "We played them last year and they whooped us (3-1 at Wisconsin). We came out with a chip on our shoulder. We wanted to prove something, not only to everybody but ourselves. We wanted to prove that we're at this level. We want to do something this year."

The Lopes could be on the verge of a top-25 ranking after receiving three votes in the preseason poll and beating the No. 12 team.

"Since I came here, we always wanted to bring this program to the top 25," Radilla said. "You can see all the players that are coming. All the support we get from the students and faculty brings a lot more energy and made us get the win today."

The Lopes players were getting hugged and high-fived by fellow students they have yet to meet. The students made their way to the YurView television cameras at the corner of the field and took the celebration to Lopes Way.

"It's unreal," Ramirez said. "We plan on keeping this rolling. We've got another tough game next week (vs. Creighton on Aug. 31 at GCU Stadium). We weren't going to let them down tonight. We're not going to let anyone come in here and win."

Follow Paul Coro on Twitter: @paulcoro.