MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris men's soccer team improved to 2-0-0 early on in the UMAC season with an entertaining 3-2 victory over North Central University on Friday afternoon. The Cougars scored twice in the opening minutes but the Rams snuck back into the match and it took a game-winning goal from
Carter Watkinson in the 85th minute for the Cougars to survive.
The opening minutes of the match seemed to indicate that it would be all Cougars, all day. The scoring was opened in the sixth minute with a blast from
Mayson Palen. Palen controlled a ball from
Mo Hoefs, took a touch to steady himself and then put his laces through it to beat Sam Thurston for the 1-0 lead.
Less than three minutes later,
Chris Goers was taken down in the penalty area by Thurston and a penalty kick was awarded. Goers took it himself and netted it into a corner to make it 2-0 with less than eight minutes played.
North Central was able to pull one back soon after when Elliot Lebsack made some space for himself just inside the 18-yard box and then curled one in past
Lucas Harmon to make it 2-1. Though the match featured a litany of chances for both sides after that, the match went to the half with the Cougars still out in front by a single goal.
That lead disappeared in the 59th minute on a nicely-worked piece of play from the Rams. Off of a free kick, Lebsack was able to cross the ball over the top to Adam Vang who then played a square ball back to the center of the field for Weston Buckley to put into the back of the net.
It took a quick reaction from Harmon to keep North Central from going on top. Evan Ackley headed a ball that looked goalbound in the 70th minute, but Harmon was able to leap and get a hand to it to knock it over the bar and keep the score level at 2-2.
As time ticked down, Minnesota Morris looked to be the fresher team and that paid off when Hoefs was able to pounce on a North Central turnover and play the ball ahead to Watkinson who finally beat Thurston with his sixth shot of the day to give the Cougars the edge. Only one shot came after that for NCU and Harmon was able to make the save to preserve the victory.
Harmon earned the victory in goal, making six saves. Watkinson led all players in the match with his six shots, five of which were on goal. Palen added another four shots for the Cougars.
Minnesota Morris is back home at Cougar Field tomorrow, facing the University of Northwestern at 2 p.m.
