Augsburg men and Carleton women advance in NCAA soccer tourney

Augsburg 2-1 Whitworth

For the second time in less than a week, Augsburg mens soccer team was forced through two overtimes and into a shootout. However, the Auggies may have learned something from last Saturday’s penalty kick loss to Carleton, (a 5-3 shootout win for Carleton). In Saturday’s game against the Knights, Augsburg had to wait for the opposition to take the first shot. So it must have seemed a bit like deja-vu for Augsburg when Whitworth’s Cameron Bushey stepped up first for Whitworth and blew the ball past Auggie keeper, Pascaul Venter. However, this time, when Simon Rekkebo took Augsburg’s first kick, he made no mistakes and buried the ball deep into the back netting. The goal was possibly a confidence builder for not only the rest of the Augsburg shooters but for Auggie keeper, Venter, as well. Venter went on to block the next two Whitworth shots. Augsburg made their next 3 shots sending the Whitworth Pirates home from the tournament with a 4-2 shootout win.

Earlier in the game, Whitworth had drawn first blood as Elly Bulega scored in the 35th minute on a header from a poor clearance by Augsburg.

The game stayed 1-0 Whitworth until the 60th minute when Nick Anderson received a pass at the top of the box from the right side of the field. He popped the ball up on his first touch and then full volleyed a hard hit sidewinder past his defender and past Pirates keeper, Jeff Srock. The goal was a 20 yard dipping ball into the far left side of the Whitworth goal. The assist came from David Scheller who pursued a ball that had been played down the right side of the field and into the Pirates half. Scheller went hard for the ball that the Whitworth defender tried to intercept. The Pirate defender’s momentum carried him out of bounds and past the ball and Scheller was opportunistic. He not only jumped on the ball to win it, but immediately played the ball into Anderson who took the shot from the top of the box and square with the right edge of goal. Two touches was all it took. One to trap and set himself up and the other to shoot and score.

The Auggies will play again Sunday, Nov. 16th, at Redlands (Calif.) in NCAA tournament second-round game at 3 p.m. CST.  Redlands (16-4-2) had a bye the first game and will be hosting. The weather for Sunday’s game in Redlands is predicted to be 85°F and sunny. Wow, that’s a big temperature change! I hope the Auggies can adjust quickly.

Carleton 2-0 St. Scholastica

It only took 6 minutes for the Carleton Knight women to exert themselves against St. Scholastica. The lady Knights scored on a goal by Merritt Swain unassisted at 6:02 into the game. Swain took a shot off a poor clearance by St. Scholastica and Swain shot high and hard to put the Knights up 1-0.

The Knights dominated in every way after that but it took until the 78th minute to get the assurance goal by Nicky Bloom. Bloom dribble past a defender and St. Scholastica keeper, Erin Olejnicak, to tap the ball into the goal. Carleton out shot St. Scholastica 27-2, led in corners 7-0 and forced the opposition into 11 saves to the Knights 1.

The Knights (16-5) now travel to Tacoma, Wash. for a second-round matchup against the University of Puget Sound (18-1) on Sunday. The Puget Sound Loggers enter the contest on a 16-game win streak and haven’t lost since Sept. 7. Weather for Tacoma at game time should be 55°F and sunny.