Ninety minutes were nearly up. The University of Vermont, tied 2-2 with Cal State Fullerton, needed a goal to avoid a season-opening draw and Jon Arnar Barddal wasn’t ready to let that happen.

The freshman midfielder spent the final moments buzzing around the field, pressing and charging forward with everything he had, shouting at the rest of the Catamounts to do the same. Where was the intensity?

“Everybody was kind of relaxed and chill. I just didn’t know what was going on,” Barddal said. “And of course the ref blew the whistle and I was like, ‘Ugh, we should’ve won that game.’

“I was going to handshake with the other team and one of my teammates was like, ‘Come on, let’s do it!’”

A year earlier, Barddal’s compatriot Loftur Eriksson found himself in the same position when UVM finished 90 minutes deadlocked with UNC-Asheville. The sport Eriksson crossed the Atlantic to play had him scratching his head.

“We’re actually playing overtime right now?” Eriksson wondered at the time. “Is this Champions League?”

Of all the issues the Vermont men’s soccer team could have with fielding four Icelandic imports — language barriers, clashing cultures, homesickness — battling all-out until the final whistle would be confused for good fortune far quicker than it would ever be considered a flaw.

But as the reigning America East Conference champions have discovered, the isolated island nation best known for vikings, volcanoes and its fire-and-ice landscape is also an emerging soccer hotbed. The connection that started with the arrival of Eriksson last year has paid off brilliantly ever since for UVM, off to one of the best starts in program history (9-2-1) after bringing on three more Icelandic prospects.

“The football is pretty rich. It’s in every community,” said assistant coach Rob Dow, who’s made two recruiting trips to Iceland in the past year. “Looking at them as players, they’re mature, hard-working, responsible athletes and having that type of profile coming into our program, it’s exactly what we need to get started right away.”

The proof: Two games into the season, the Vermont sent out all four Icelanders in its starting 11 — Eriksson, Barddal, defender Arnar Steinn Hansson and goalkeeper Aron Runarsson — and never looked back.

The opportunity to play and study in America is unconventional but growing in popularity.

“In Iceland some people think that the school system works against the sports. Like, you don’t really have time to be at university and play at a high level,” said Hansson, who grew up playing on the same teams with Barddal in Gardabaer, outside the capital of Reykjavik.

“The plan from when you’re young, it’s always to go pro, of course,” Hansson said. “But that doesn’t happen for everybody — injuries, not being good enough, not getting the same chances as other guys may play a part in this. And I guess this is the best Plan B in the world.”

The pioneer

A year in Burlington under his belt, Eriksson appears at ease. The blond defender, indispensable as a center back this year with his steady personality and technical skill set, carries himself with confidence.

Asked how he and his countrymen coped with the August heat during training camp, he wisecracks without missing a beat.

“A lot of sunscreen. A lot of sunscreen,” Eriksson said. “Stay in the shade.”

But it wasn’t always this way.

After completing his undergraduate degree in Iceland — in three years — Eriksson was eager for a change. He wanted soccer to be a part of it and began reaching out to programs in the U.S.

“I wanted to go out of my comfort zone and explore new things,” Eriksson said.

UVM's Eriksson connects to Iceland's Euro fairy tale

Within a month of joining the Catamounts, he had a spot in the starting lineup, impressing head coach Jesse Cormier with his organization and stability. But under the surface, the newcomer from Saudarkrokur, on the northern coast of Iceland, felt every mile of the distance between himself and what he knew before.

“Like, the first two or three months here, they were not pretty,” Eriksson said. “It was definitely a challenge and I was getting really homesick. I couldn’t talk to anybody in Icelandic — I was just Skyping my mom. It was a tough time.”

Cormier: “He brought that right to my door and said, ‘I’m struggling, tell me what you think.’”

It wasn’t the first time a UVM player had been in the situation. But each instance is instructive.

“You’ve got to be able to connect to the kid in that way and it doesn’t matter if he’s Icelandic, if he’s American, if he’s Canadian,” Cormier said. “They’re all having similar identity issues figuring their lives out. You’ve got to be available to them, you’ve got to care about them as people. They can feel it if you do or you don’t.”

Eriksson persisted. The Catamounts captured their first league title and NCAA appearance since 2007. And new recruits like Barddal were soon seeking out his guidance on FaceTime.

“Loftur, he was a pioneer,” Cormier said. “Loftur showed us the possibilities and how it can really work well.”

The new wave

The University of Vermont has 820 international students from 72 countries enrolled for the fall semester, according to the school. Of the five from Iceland, four play soccer.

The Catamounts have previously drawn from Iceland, and more than a dozen other countries since 1990, but why so many this season? That comes down to multiple factors intersecting at just the right time.

Eriksson’s presence and experience played a central part. The influence of former Clemson player Brynjar Benediktsson was another.

“What I thought was the boys in Iceland weren’t thinking about the college game, just because they didn’t know how great it is,” Benediktsson said Saturday night at Virtue Field after watching UVM’s 2-1 win over Stony Brook. “You get an education, you play at a high level — especially here in Vermont — and so after your three, four years you’re a better player and have a degree.”

Benediktsson decided to establish recruiting agency in Iceland, Soccer and Education USA, to link prospects there with American schools. The new Catamounts were just three of 18 players to score scholarships in the last year.

The attraction for college coaches was obvious: Skilled players ready compete right away.

“They have a high level of intelligence, maturity. They have their lives together,” Cormier said. “These guys, this is something they really want to do and they put the steps together and they have a lot of purpose to do it.”

Likewise, the sales pitch or players and their families has its own allure.

“I think Bobby Clark at Notre Dame says it all the time: This is the best process in the world for kids at this age because you’re getting a degree, you’re being educated and you’re being challenged as a footballer and an athlete,” Cormier said. “If it’s done really well and it’s done right, these guys can walk away with a pretty spectacular experience they can pull on for the rest of their lives.”

Dow made his first trip to Iceland the morning after the Catamounts’ loss to Boston College in last year’s NCAA tournament. Hansson’s commitment came a couple weeks later.

Runarsson, from Akureyri, about 90 minutes east of Eriksson’s home town, fell into Vermont’s lap after a rival school said no.

“At first I committed to Binghamton before, but then they cancelled on me and I talked to Rob (Dow) in probably March or April,” Runarsson said. “I think it was the best move.”

Climb continues for UVM after NCAA berth

Barddal had tried to make it as a professional but a knee injury set back his development. He was late to latch onto the idea of college soccer, hesitant about the academic part of the equation because of dyslexia, but followed Hansson’s footsteps after talking with Benediktsson.

“In my case it (college) was not in the picture a few years ago. It was not the plan,” Barddal said. “Then I heard more and more guys were coming here … I had a few opportunities but the environment, (Vermont) was definitely the school who supported me most, especially through the exams.”

Dow and Cormier both said the inclusive nature of the Catamounts’ locker room as being the most important piece to the Icelandic players’ success so far.

“Us as a team, an older team, we’re helping them adjust to situations on and off the field and make sure we’re a collective as a team,” said senior forward Brian Wright, a native of Ontario. “They add their own spice to the team, as well as with ours. It’s a good mix all-around.”

Start of something bigger?

When the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, it disrupted European air travel for nearly a week.

When the location scouts for “Game of Thrones” visited the same north Atlantic location, they found a backdrop for the most talked-about show on television.

When Iceland made its first major international soccer tournament, the 2016 European Championship, it did nothing less than shock the world with an upset of England.

“I think it’s bigger than we think — but we actually think it’s huge,” Eriksson said. “If that makes sense.”

Runarsson: “Massive — massive thing for Iceland. We finally got on the map soccer-wise.”

The point: When Iceland does something, its impact is often far greater than any nation of 330,000 people can expect to have. And with more Icelandic players on its roster this year than than any other school in America, Vermont has positioned itself near the front of the line when it comes to tapping that vein of talent.

“I guess the word is out that the University of Vermont is a good place to land for a young, aspiring footballer who’s a good student,” Cormier said. “From what they’re telling me, what Rob is telling me, this is big news for them on their side. People watch our games from Iceland ... It’s a big story over there that it’s working out so well.”

One success story can be a flash in the pan. But four? By then the secret is out.

“We’d like to keep it quiet but I don’t think we can keep it quiet anymore,” Dow said. “They’re all starting for us.”

Subscribe on iTunes:http://apple.co/2dLmDEB

This story was originally published Oct. 5, 2016. Contact Austin Danforth at 651-4851 or edanforth@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/eadanforth

Austin Danforth