St. Scholastica 2
Minnesota, Morris 1 (2 OT)
Driving rain and gale force winds off Lake Superior blew mystery, confusion and altered states across the soccer pitch in Duluth this afternoon, where St. Scholastica prevailed 2-1 over the Cougar men’s soccer team in double overtime.
Head coach Christian DeVries called it “the most unreal set of circumstances I’ve been involved in as a college coach. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
With the Cougars leading 1-0 and less than 10 seconds on the clock, UMM was called for a foul and the Saints were awarded a free kick near the midfield stripe. Twenty-one players packed into the penalty box as the ball was launched into the crowd and knocked safely away as time expired.
DeVries left the sidelines with his hands raised in jubilation, but a referee’s whistle halted the celebration.
The referee had called a handball against the Cougars and when asked which player committed the infraction, the official could not cite a particular individual, just a UMM player.
(All of this action had transpired without a working game clock. The Scholastica scoreboard malfunctioned and went black during the 80th minute. Time was being kept by the referee which also added to the confusion.)
So, with no time on the clock, the Saints’ Peter Toby made the penalty kick, sending the game into overtime.
That was just prelude to the next misfortune.
With less than a minute remaining in the second overtime, St. Scholastica crossed a ball in front of the UMM goal. Goalkeeper Tyler Weber ran out intercept it, but before he could get to the spot it caromed off senior defender Justin O’Connor’s back and rolled past Weber and into the goal to end the game and the Cougars hopes of a season sweep of the Saints.
For nearly 75 minutes, in near-torrential rain and wind, the game played to a stalemate with both teams mounting attacks, but unable to pose real scoring threats. For the game, the Cougars had 21 shots to the Saints 14.
In the 79th minute, senior Patrick O’Connor crossed a ball into the box at the feet of senior Brent Diggs who buried the pass into the net.
Given how the game had been played up to that point, DeVries said, “When we got that goal, I felt like we would have the game. We really felt like we had won the championship right there.”
And then the strangeness happened.
The loss cuts UMM's conference lead to two points with just three points to go. Defeating Presentation at home next weekend assures the Cougars an outright conference championship.
DeVries said his players were understandably disappointed and upset after the game. In spite of the turn of events, he said St. Scholastica deserved some credit for the win. “Hey, they never gave up and that was the difference.”
Box Score
