(Pictured above (Jr. Dana Veth (Ham Lake, Minn.) with a header attempt in the championship game.
(Photo's courtesy UMAC commissioner Corey Borchard)
For the second straight season, the Cougar men's soccer team lost to very close regular season Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC)
games by scores of 1-0 in Duluth October 4th and 2-1 in a snow storm for just over half of the game in Morris October 26th.
But on Saturday, November 8th, they defeated the regular season champion Saints when in counted most. In the UMAC men's soccer post-season tournament title game in Duluth.
Last year UMM defeated CSS in the tournament championship game by a score of 2-1.
The only goal of the game came in the first half as Junior Patrick O'Connor Ham Lake, Minn.) drove one past the Saints goal keeper just over ten minutes into the contest. For O'Connor it was his fourth game winning goal of the year and number ten on the year
The Cougar defense then took over to preserve the win.
Minnesota, Morris had nine shots, St. Scholastica seven. The Cougars had a 4-1 advantage in shots on goal in the game.
The Cougar men's soccer team has won two UMAC post-season championships in a row in just three years of existence.
UMM now has 18 wins (18-4) on the year a new record, 15 was the old record in 2007.
They have also set the single season record for goals with 59, 54 was the previous mark last year.
Head Coach Christian DeVries said, “I am proud of how the guys finished the season. First by beating Presentation college in three straight game over a 6 day period and then winning our second straight UMAC Tournament Championship in Duluth today. They have really played team soccer over the last couple of weeks.
Tomorrow we will wait to see if the NCAA feels that our 18-4 record is strong enough to get into the National Tournament. The announcement of the teams in the 2008 National Tournament will be made Sunday evening with the full bracket being released on Monday. Our strong finish give us a chance for an invitation.”
Minnesota, Morris also had four players earn that were named to the All-Tournament team and the Tournament Most Valuable Player.
The four Cougars being named to the 12 member All-Tournament Team are Greg Borchers (Fr. Westminster, Colo.), Brent Diggs (Jr. Champlin, Minn.), Kelsey Duerr (Jr. Spring Lake Park, Minn.), and Patrick O'Connor (Jr. Ham Lake, Minn.).
O'Connor was name the Tournament MVP.
 |  |
| Minnesota-Morris | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| St. Scholastica | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Box Score.
Kelsey Duerr (Jr. Spring Lake Park, Minn,) dribbles the ball up field for the Cougars.
For a larger image, click
here.
Tournament MVP Patrick O'Connor (Jr. Ham Lake, Minn.) makes a pass up field as team mate Brent Diggs (Jr. Champlin, Minn.), named to the All-tournament team looks on.
For a larger image click
here.
