M OR N IN GS ID E C O L L E G E
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MUSTANG SOCCER A spot in the 2020 Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament championship match is at stake this evening. Top-seeded and regular-season champion Morningside College welcomes fourth-seeded Northwestern College to Elwood Olsen Stadium. The Mustangs (14-3-1), winners of four in a row, reached the semifinal round with a resounding 4-0 victory over eighth-seeded Dakota Wesleyan University in quarterfinal round action on April 10. The Red Raiders (11-5-1) staved off fifth-seeded Concordia University in a thriller at Orange City, winning 10-9 on penalty kicks after a scoreless regulation and two overtimes.
THE MATCH-UP The league rivals have split their last eight head-to-head battles, including a narrow 2-1 Northwestern win in the regularseason edition last November. NWC leads 8-6-1 all-time. Taking advantage of early-match opportunities is always essential in the postseason. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics’ No. 16-ranked Mside took that to heart April 10. With less than five and a half minutes off the scoreboard clock at Elwood Olsen Stadium, the combination of freshman midfielder/forward Victor Beker and junior midfielder Moritz Lusch found an opportunity less than 10 yards from Dakota Wesleyan’s net. It converted for a goal that sent the partisan Mustangs’ crowd into hysterics. It would be the only offensive strike needed for head coach Tom Maxon’s side, but the Maroon returned in the second 45 minutes with three more scores to seal the victory. Following Becker’s first collegiate game-winning score, the eighth-seeded Tigers didn’t make things easy on their top-seeded and regular-season champion hosts. A 25-yard free-kick off Tyler Anderson’s foot caused some uneasiness among the home crowd as sophomore goalkeeper Bjarne Huth had to clear it over the top of the crossbar. DWU kept the score at 1-0 into the break. However, junior forward Okan Golge added a fourth successive match
with at least one goal with two in a row, as one occurred on a penalty kick, over 25 minutes. Junior midfielder Noah Aniser produced the final score off an assist from junior forward Nico Renzi. Huth and junior Tobias Sadler kept a 90-minute clean sheet intact. They both finished with a save on their afternoon resume. Golge’s two weekend scores added to a splendid 2020-21 slate for the two-time reigning conference Offensive Player of the Year. He ranks among the national top two in seven statistical categories, including leading the nation in goals (1.61), points (3.72), total shots (5.67,) and shots on goal (3.17) per contest. He’s second in game-winning goals (seven), overall goals (29,) and points (67). Due to his and the rest of the offense’s sparkling play, the team is second in assists (64) and goals (65) and third in assists per match (3.56) on the national report. Tonight’s victor moves into the conference tournament finale Friday, April 16, against either second-seeded Briar Cliff University or third-seeded Hastings College.
ABOUT NORTHWESTERN NWC’s spring has seen head coach Dan Swier’s side produce a 1-2-1 record. They knocked off Clarke University with a five-goal bonanza on March 20, dropped a pair of 1-0 contests to William Penn University and Viterbo University, and edged past Concordia. A senior-sophomore tandem of forward Juan Mackrey and midfielder James Bolger top the offense, scoring seven goals each. They’re part of a group of six that have found the opposing goal’s net in two-or-more instances. Sophomore goalkeeper Ezekiel Foltz, whose six saves which featured several diving stops allowed NWC to side-step this evening’s hosts in the regular-season outing, continues to be tough to solve. He has 85 saves and a 1.380 goals-against average as part of 11 victories and five shutouts.