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Concordia junior forward Justin Foss goes for the slide tackle in the Cobbers' 4-0 loss to St. Scholastica on Sunday. Foss was one of five CC players with three shots in the game. |
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| Improving Cobbers Fall To Economical Saints! | ||||||||||||
Gameday Scoreboard:
Game Stats: Concordia vs. St. Scholastica Box Score - Now Online! Opponent's Website: St. Scholastica Men's Soccer Gameday Rewind: Photo Gallery: Concordia vs. St. Scholastica Photo Gallery - Now Online! Game Stats: Concordia vs. St. Scholastica Box Score - Now Online! Gameday Game Recap: MOORHEAD, Minn. (9/09/07)-- If a fan just looked at the results from the first four games of the season, it would be hard to tell if the Concordia men's soccer team was making any progress from the past two seasons. As the saying goes, "you can't always judge a book by its cover." The fans that have seen this year's team play in person can attest that the Cobbers are headed in the right direction. Despite outshooting St. Scholastica 18-16, Concordia fell 4-0 to the Saints in a non-conference contest in Moorhead on Sunday. The Cobbers were done in by a vastly improved Saints squad that featured seven new starting players and a completely different talent level from the 2005 team that lost to Concordia 3-0. CSC was able to make the most of its scoring chances in the first half and then countered the Cobbers in the second half when CC started to press forward in order to get back in the game. The loss came one day after Concordia posted its first win of the season. The Cobbers are now 1-3-0 on the season, while St. Scholastica improves to 2-1-0 on the year. The first half started with both teams playing a rapid pace, trying to establish their dominance in the middle of the field. Play started to turn to a physical nature in the opening half of the game as the two teams went unchecked by the passive referee. The first swing in momentum came 14th minute when the Saints were able to break down the Cobber defense through the middle of the field. A two-pass combination sent Saint forward Cody Sveiven through the back of the CC defense and all alone on Concordia keeper Kirby Johnson. Sveiven tucked the ball into the corner to give CSC a 1-0 lead at the 13:10 mark. The Saints added to the lead six minutes later when right-side wing midfielder Jermaine Dacres turned the corner on the Concordia backline and beat Johnson with a shot to the far post. The play capped a series of plays that found Dacres continually pressing the CC wing defense. Despite allowing a pair of goals in the first 45 minutes, Concordia finished the period with an 11-5 advantage in shots. Concordia opened the second half by pushing the ball at the Saints defense in the final third of play. However, just like the first half, CC was unable to capitalize on any scoring chance. The best opportunity came off the head of Cobber forward Justin Foss. Late in the game he found himself in front of the St. Scholastica goal and watched as his header hit the crossbar and caromed away from the goal. CC freshman midfielder Alex Dahl was also able to get a quality chance at goal but his shot was turned off the post by CSC keeper Adam Whitehead. With the Cobbers pressing forward, St. Scholastica was able to score a pair of goals less than two minutes apart to put the game out of reach. At 56:30, Robbie Miller cashed in his second goal of the year, and then Andy Solin followed with his first goal of the year at 58:12 on a shot that handcuffed Johnson from 20 yards out. For the game, Johnson made five saves for Concordia and was handed his first loss of the season. Whitehead also collected five stops and recorded his second shutout of the year. The Cobbers will open up conference action on Wednesday, Sept. 12 when they play at Augsburg at 6:30 p.m.
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Concordia College is a private, four year liberal arts college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. |