SEWARD, Neb. – After a scoreless first half in the semifinal, the second-seeded Bulldogs poured on three goals and pushed back the third-seeded charging Red Raiders in the 3-2 victory. The two teams opened up in the second frame downpouring 20 total shots inside Bulldog Stadium. Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Soccer will host No. 5 seed Hastings in the GPAC championship.
CUNE has totaled an 8-2-9 overall record and has gone 5-0-1 in the last six games.
“Our guys have had a really good response to challenging moments throughout the year”, said head coach Jason Weides. “That’s what really good teams do, and they have shown they are capable of doing that time and time again. To respond so quickly after conceding two goals, suddenly it's tied. I’m just proud of the response these guys had. Our defenders did well against a talented team like Northwestern. You’re not going to shut guys like that down, but our defenders did a really good job of that. We scored some quality goals today. We had great moments. That’s what you have to do. Survive and advance.”
With the match tied from an own goal and a penalty for the visitors, Kai Olbrich pushed a ball through defenders into the box. The ever dangerous Martin Herrera punched the game winner through for his 11th goal of the season.
After a combined four shots in the initial 45 minutes, a rainstorm of goals started with Defender Sean Stratman breaking the ice. Oliver Benson made the feed and Stratman put the finishing touch on the first collegiate goal of his career. Five minutes later (63’), Ryan Wokutch received a long pass from Aidan Nachi, set it up and banged it home.
Wokutch said postgame, “I’m so happy. It’s the second time in my career we get to go to the finals. To host it, is just special. I’m excited to see what we can do. At halftime, coach gave us some motivation. We just came out with some fire and knew that we had to score.”
The team defense did enough in the second half and dominated in the first. Iker Casanova, Adrian Wambua, Sean Stratman, Michael Lindberg, Spencer Kaufman and Michael Wyvill all stood out. Wyvill controlled the GPAC’s leading goal scorer Stan van den Beld in his one on one matchups. Goalkeeper Nolan Fuelberth earned two monumental first half saves that allowed the Bulldogs to get ahead in the second.
The two teams were evenly matched as has most of the conference, in shots (12-12), corner kicks (5-5), saves (3-3) and fouls (10-9 NWC). Northwestern finishes the GPAC tournament with an 8-5-5 overall showing.
Concordia (8-2-9, 6-0-4 GPAC) will face off against Hastings (10-7-2, 6-2-2 GPAC) in the GPAC Championship on Wednesday night (Nov. 13). The Bulldogs will host the conference final for the first time in program history. The two teams will be set to play at 7 p.m. CT.