SIOUX CITY, Iowa – As the wind blew throughout the whole 90 minutes, the shots constantly sailed high for Concordia in their match against Briar Cliff on Wednesday (Oct. 18). With a match that has so much meaning toward the conference regular season title, the two teams played at a relentless pace from the starting whistle. After letting an early goal slip through, Carter Hinman scored in the final 10 minutes, finalizing the draw (1-1) with the Chargers.
The Bulldogs stay undefeated with only two regular season matches left at 11-0-4 overall and 5-0-4 in the GPAC. Head coach Jason Weides talked about controlling the ball and fouls breaking up the strong pace of the game.
“Ultimately, we felt like we played well enough to win against a good Briar Cliff team and I thought we controlled the play the entire match. At the end of the day, we didn’t give them many clear cut chances. Early on we gifted them a goal and the wind caused a misjudgment of the ball, giving them a tap in goal. The unfortunate thing is, it took us until the 81st minute to get the first goal. We created a few good chances, but credit to their keeper for making saves. The play just kept on getting broken up and broken up because of the fouls in the game. We just couldn’t seem to find the second goal.”
Down 1-0, the chances of making a comeback started to fade for Concordia, as the wind kept pushing shots far outside their intended targets. As the last 10 minutes of the match began, the Dawgs got a late corner kick chance to find the equalizer. Jarrod Henson kicked the corner ball to the middle of the box and Carter Hinman slammed a header to the far bottom corner to knot the game up late.
The Bulldogs controlled the ball for much of the second half which showed by their 9-0 second half corner kick advantage. They turned the heat up in the 70th minute after the Chargers claimed a red card by Jasper van der Molen. The two teams broke even on shots (10) but CUNE had more quality chances, kicking seven on goal compared to their three. The final chance came from Braden Spath to take the lead in the last minute of the match but was saved by goalkeeper Hjalmar Nilsson.
Briar Cliff came out wanting a physical match earning 11 fouls in the first 26 minutes and totaled 21 in the match. Bodies continued to crash into each other as full time collected a total of nine cards at Faber Field.
In the first half, Concordia kept gaining chances in the box but was unable to capitalize on their constant time in the attacking third. Nolan Fuelberth grabbed two saves for the match.
With the tie against Briar Cliff, the Bulldogs stay four points behind the Chargers with only two matches left. Concordia will need help from their opponents to steal the regular season GPAC title.
Concordia (11-0-4, 5-0-4 GPAC) comes back for their final home contest against Waldorf (2-10-1, 1-6 GPAC), hosting senior day on Saturday (Oct. 21). The two teams haven’t met since 2017, as the Bulldogs won (4-2) on the road against the Warriors in Forrest City, Iowa.