SIOUX CENTER, Iowa – The Concordia University men’s soccer team set out to quickly wash away the feelings it experienced three days earlier in its first loss of 2019. In action Saturday (Sept. 28) at Dordt, the Bulldogs took care of business in impressive fashion. They outshot the host Defenders, 27-3, and ran away with a 5-0 victory.
This was the response 12th-year head coach Jason Weides had hoped for. Fortunately, Wednesday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Kansas Wesleyan University did no harm to Concordia’s hopes of comping for a conference championship. The Bulldogs are 8-1 overall and 3-0 in league play.
“It was a good performance,” Weides said. “I thought we did well defensively in limiting Dordt’s chances. They had two pretty good chances in the first half that could have made it a much tighter game had they scored on one of those. Fortunately we were able to maintain the shutout. Callum (Goldsmith) made a really nice save in the second half.
“We were able to go deep into our bench and get some good quality minutes for a lot of guys. It was a good overall team performance.”
Four different Concordia players found the back of the net with Garrett Perry striking for a pair of goals. Matthew Ho got the run started with a 14th-minute goal. Moises Jacobo (42’) and Josue Fernandez (82’) added a goal apiece. Jacobo pushed his team high goal count to six while Fernandez knocked in his first as a Bulldog.
Momentarily, the Defenders (3-4-2, 1-2-1 GPAC) appeared to score in the final seconds. However, the potential goal was disallowed. Dordt’s lone victory within conference play was a 1-0 decision at Presentation. The Bulldogs are now 4-0-1 against the Defenders over the past five matchups.
In some ways, Wednesday may have served as a bit of a wakeup call. Concordia had to have three points on Saturday to keep pace with other GPAC heavyweights such as sixth-ranked Hastings and Morningside.
“We were certainly looking to respond positively,” Weides said. “Everybody recognized that we did not perform as well as we were capable of. We didn’t want to play anymore games where we were outhustled and outworked. The guys got back down to the basics and did well with that.”
The Bulldogs will be back at home next Saturday (Oct. 5) to host Mount Marty (2-5, 1-2 GPAC) for a 3:15 p.m. CT contest. The lone Lancer GPAC victory this season came by a 6-1 score over Presentation. Mount Marty played Hastings into double overtime on Sept. 21 before falling, 1-0. Last season Concordia defeated the Lancers, 3-1.