University of Minnesota, Morris 5, Northwestern Coll. 0
A soggy pitch, an overcast day, and ninety minutes of steady rain. Not exactly ideal conditions for an afternoon soccer game, you might think. But you would be wrong.
After scoring two goals en route to leading the Cougars to a 5-0 win over visiting Northwestern, midfielder Kelsey Duerr said the wet track actually helped his team.
“[The wet field] kept the pace faster for us. The ball would skip. It kept the ball moving a lot,” he said. That faster pace kept the Cougars one step ahead of Northwestern all afternoon.
The visiting Eagles came into the game 1-6, having lost their last match against UMM 5-0 in October 2008.
Senior forward Brent Diggs opened the scoring in the seventh minute finishing off a header pass from midfielder Patrick O’Connor. It was Diggs’ fifth tally of the year, and just the first of three game assists for O’Connor.
Diggs would strike against 12 minutes later on a slick touch-touch pass from O’Connor and midfielder Toby Glaser.
Duerr’s first goal of the game came in the 36th minute, assisted by O’Connor again. First year forward Mahad Abdi notched his first career goal nine minutes later, and just 20 seconds before the end of the half. The Cougar entered the intermission leading 4-0.
Duerr would get another goal (assisted by Mattson Towley) early in the second half, after which head coach Christian DeVries cleared his bench, which preserved the shutout.
As has been the trend for the Cougars in the last five games, they dominated time of possession with adept and quick passing. The defensive line of Greg Borchers, Dana Veth and Justin O’Connor once again insured that goalkeeper Tyler Simpson would see little pressure during the match. Northwestern managed only eight shots for the game (only two in the second half) compared to the Cougars’ 26.
Over the past four games, the Cougars have outscored their opponents 17-0 and for the season have tripled the number of shots taken (186-65).
The Cougar men return to the field early Saturday morning (9/26) for a noon match-up against Crown College. They now stand 5-3 on the year.
University of Minnesota, Morris 5, Northwestern Coll. 0