FOREST CITY, Iowa – The rise up the league standings continues down the stretch of 2024 for the Concordia University, Nebraska Men’s Soccer team. On Saturday (Oct. 19), the Bulldogs made their longest trek of the conference season and walked away from Forest City, Iowa, a 10-0 winner over Waldorf. Seven different Concordia players found the back of the net in the program’s largest goal-scoring outburst since an 11-0 win over Mount Marty in 2016.
Head Coach Jason Weides’ squad completed a dominant 2-0 week on the road that included a 3-0 win at Doane. The Bulldogs now stand at 4-0-4 in GPAC play (5-2-8 overall) with just two remaining regular season outings. The current top five in the conference standings are all within one point of each other.
“The guys came in with a really good mindset and approach to it,” Weides said. “We really focused ourselves on being consistent, being simple and improving. I think we did that. We were able to see a lot of faces in the match and get some guys quality minutes that hadn’t played as much this season. It was really fun to see those guys succeed and score some goals. We were on top of them right away and took control of it.”
Also the team’s first goal scorer on Wednesday night, Ryan Wokutch began the surge in the 19th minute with his third goal of the season. Concordia proceeded to put the game on ice with seven goals before halftime arrived. Three Bulldogs tallied two goals apiece: Youssef Heggy, Aidan Nachi and Kai Olbrich. One goal each came courtesy of Ferdi Hagen, Martin Herrera and Mattis Hollnagel, in addition to Wokutch. Olbrich was especially active as he placed our shots on frame and had an assist. Heggy recorded three shots on goal and also added an assist.
Goal scoring summary:
· 19’ – Ryan Wokutch
· 21’ – Martin Herrera (assist by Kai Olbrich)
· 27’ – Kai Olbrich (assist by D’Andre Williams)
· 32’ – Youssef Heggy
· 33’ – Youssef Heggy (assist by Michael Lindberg)
· 38’ – Ferdi Hagen (assist by Aidan Nachi)
· 41’ – Aidan Nachi (assist by Martin Herrera)
· 62’ – Mattis Hollnagel
· 67’ – Kai Olbrich (assist by Youssef Heggy)
· 74’ – Aidan Nachi (assist by Mattis Hollnagel)
Nineteen Concordia players saw action in the game. In goal, Gabriel Mendoza played the first 45 minutes before giving way to Jason Payne for the second half. It was the first career collegiate action for Payne, who made a save and helped preserve the shutout. The shot count told the story of dominance as the Bulldogs owned it, 28-2. They also peppered the Warriors with 14 corner kicks.
Said Weides, “We had some guys step up and play well at Doane and I think that certainly inspired confidence in themselves. They really took the opportunity and it led into this match. Zahid Falcon started for the first time in his career and played all 90 minutes. Kai Olbrich had been playing really well and got the start. Overall, it was a great team win. We had a couple alums here and it was great to celebrate with them.”
Waldorf slipped to 0-12-1 (0-7 GPAC). The 10 goals they conceded were the second most by a Warrior opponent in GPAC play this season. Concordia also defeated Waldorf by a 6-0 score last season in Seward.
The Bulldogs will have the middle of this coming week off while looking ahead to next Saturday (Oct. 26)’s trip to Yankton, S.D., for a meeting with Mount Marty (4-8-1, 1-6 GPAC). Concordia toppled the Lancers by a 3-0 score in Seward last season. In action this weekend, Mount Marty was beaten at Morningside, 5-0.