Eleven days ago Yudai Tashiro sat alone at the end of Creighton’s bench after a 3-1 loss to UC Irvine. His head was in his hand, trying to hide the tears while his arms was wrapped securely to his chest to prevent any movement after the senior midfielder suffered what everyone feared was a season-ending injury when he landed awkwardly on the turf during the second half.
Somehow, some way he was back on the pitch a week later helping his team earn a 1-0 win at Marquette, and on Tuesday night he was sprinting around the north end of Morrison Stadium with his teammates chasing after him after he scored the golden goal in the 106th minute to give the Bluejays a 4-3 double-overtime win over Tulsa.
“He’s got a heart the size of Texas and he loves these guys,” Creighton head coach Johnny Torres when asked why Tashiro was able to return so quickly from a devastating injury. “We contemplated red-shirting him after his shoulder injury, but he was adamant that he wants to play with his brothers. He wants to play with these guys and here he is. He’s got a lot of grit, he’s got a big heart, and he packs a big punch.”
Creighton (5-2-1) went to the locker room trailing 1-0 after what Torres described as a “casual and lethargic” 45 minutes of soccer.
The script flipped in a hurry once the second half got underway as the Bluejays scored three times in the span of three minutes and 37 seconds to take a commanding 3-1 lead with 34:17 left in regulation.
The equalizer came just over seven minutes into the period when senior forward Luke Haakenson settled a sharp cross off the foot of junior defender Musa Qongo and fired a strike back to his left from near the edge of the 18-yard box into the side of the net on the far post.
Sophomore midfielder Daniel Espeleta gave Creighton the lead in the 55th minute when sprinted on from the left side of the pitch with the ball at his feet and drill a line drive into the right side of the net for the second goal of his career, and second in as many matches after notching the game-winner in the 86th minute at Marquette on Friday.
Haakenson padded the lead 48 seconds later with his second goal of the match and fourth of the season.
In a span of 10 minutes and 43 seconds, Creighton had turned a one-goal deficit into a two-goal lead and had produced a 5-0 advantage in shots to open the second half with a bang.
“There was a deliberate intention to play forward immediately,” Torres said. “The difference in the start of that second half was we weren’t so casual in our speed of play. We were looking forward to try and penetrate lines of defense, and we were able to do that in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
“I think there was a little bit more urgency rather than this casual type of attitude or mindset that we had towards the game in the first half.”
The Jays, however, were not able to keep up the onslaught long enough to put away the match as Tulsa (3-4-0) drew within a goal in the 75th minute on a breakaway goal by Chase Bromstedt, and evened things up in the 87th minute when Harris Partain sneaked a rocket past Creighton goalkeeper Collin Valdivia.
“Obviously I was proud of the way we came out in the second half,” Torres said. “It was a great response to come out with a lot of firepower, but I was a little disappointed in how we lost focus. Instead of continuing to keep the foot on the gas pedal and finish the game out, we lost focus, we lost discipline, and Tulsa punished us. We made it a lot harder for ourselves tonight.”
Neither side produced a particularly dangerous chance in either overtime period until nearly six minutes into the second overtime when Tulsa goalkeeper Brady Moody completely whiffed on an attempt to clear out a back pass from his own teammate. As the ball rolled behind him, Moody raced back to ball and jumped on it before Creighton’s Nico Engelking could chip it in. After a few a seconds of confusion the referee realized that yeah, you can’t actually do that, and awarded the Bluejays a free kick at the edge of the six-yard box.
The referee originally placed the ball on the corner of the box, but Torres raced down the sideline to point out that the ball was illegally touched between the posts, not outside of them, and as a result should be lined up more towards the middle edge of the box and not the corner.
“The goalie picked it up in front of his goal line and in between the posts, so technically it’s got to be central, not on the corner,” Torres explained. “That’s all I was yelling. I think the rule states that if it’s outside the posts, then he can put it on the corner of the six, but it was central. That’s my understanding of the rule. That’s all I was yelling.”
Haakenson, Tashiro, and junior co-captain Kuba Polat lined up by the ball as all 11 Tulsa players lined up at the goal line and prepared to rush the ball on first touch. Haakenson jab-stepped toward the Golden Hurricane defenders, Polat tapped the ball to Tashiro, and the 5-foot-5 senior from Tokyo, Japan blasted it over the oncoming wave of humanity and into the upper part of the net for the second game-winning goal of his Bluejay career.
Torres said after the match that the shot was more difficult than it looked despite the distance. Tashiro begged to differ.
“For me, it was not hard to take it,” he said. “I had pressure, but there is still a huge space up top. I knew where I needed to hit the ball. There was pressure, but it was still kind of easy for me to finish it.”
Considering he only missed what amounted to a few days with a dislocated shoulder and “couple torn ligaments” that will require surgery at the end of the season, everything else probably feels easy to the kid from Japan who just couldn’t stand to not be on the field with his teammates.
“I thought my season would be done,” Tashiro said. “But at the same time, I needed to be strong and I needed to be back on the field to help those guys … it’s just my desire to play the game and to win the game. That’s it. Nothing else. I just want to play the game. No matter what I just want to play the game.
“I feel like this is my second family, because I’m so far away from home. We have a lot of supporters who come to our games, and I have my coaches and teammates who help me to become a better player and a better person.
“Before the UNO game, I went to the hospital to get an MRI and the doctor told me that I can still play, but I’d have to put a brace on. That was good enough for me.”