Game Preview:

Gameday Program:

Complete Gameday Program vs St. Thomas (pdf)

Game Rewind:

Match Stats: Final Stats vs. St. Thomas

Key Point of the Game: The Cobbers turned a tight 1-0 game into a 3-0 blowout with a pair of goals two minutes apart in the second half.

The Quote: "It's nice. We are coming together and it is fun to play a full 90 minutes for the second game in a row. It's even better since this was a conference game." Cobber sophomore central defender Chelsee McLaughlan.
The Leaders: The Cobber central  midfield tandem of Miriam Lombardozzi and Darcey Swagger helped the Concordia attack put up 23 shots and found other offensive players besides scoring threat Morgan Bain to attack the Tommie defense.

Game Recap:

MOORHEAD, Minn. (09/12/06)-- The saying goes in soccer that the center midfield is like the team's engine room. If that is the case then the Cobber engine room was firing on all cylinders in the MIAC opener against St. Thomas as Concordia controlled the middle part of the field and won going away 3-0.

The CC midfield tandem of Miriam Lombardozzi and Darcy Swagger did a great job of controlling play and getting all six Cobber attacking players involved. The Tommies did a good job of shutting down MIAC record-holding scorer Morgan Bain but couldn't keep Bain's teammates off the board.

With the UST defense swarming Bain on every touch, she was able to open space for forwards Rachel Lewis and Megan Rice and the four supporting midfielders.

It was Bain who assisted Rice on the first goal of the game at the 32:32 mark of the first half. After receiving a ball on the wing from midfielder Suzy Grabko, Bain lured the St. Thomas defense away from the front of the goal and found a waiting Rice who deftly finished off the one-time volley. For Rice it was the first collegiate goal of her career and proved to be the eventual game-winner.

With Concordia clamping down in the middle, St. Thomas was unable to get an attack started in the first half and struggles to get any chance on the Cobbers net. After the first 45 minutes, CC held a 10-4 edge in shots and a 6-1 margin in shots on goal.

The first part of the second half would prove to be the deciding stretch in the game. St. Thomas came out after the break and pressured the Cobber backline and had a pair of chances inside the Concordia penalty area. Unfortunately they were unable to get off a clear shot. Their fast second-half start turned to despair just eight minutes into the period.

Concordia junior forward Rachel Lewis collected her second goal of the season at 53:20 on a nice feed from Swagger and then senior wing midfielder Amy Ravenhorst hammered home a ball from 20 yards out to give the Cobbers a comfortable 3-0 lead just 1:52 later.

From that point on, Concordia was able to roll through many substitutes and ended up playing 21 players in the game.

Concordia goalie Britt Reiersgord made just one save in picking up her third shutout of the season. She is now a perfect 4-0 on the season and lowered her goals against average to a paltry 0.25.

St. Thomas keeper Dana Vilar played well throughout the game and finished with 13 saves.

The Cobbers finished the game with a 23-6 edge in shots on goal and had seven corner kicks to the Tommies' two.

Concordia will return to MIAC action when they play at Gustavus on Saturday, Sept. 16 at 3 p.m. The Cobbers will then travel to Eau Claire, Wis. to take on nationally-ranked UW-Eau Claire on Sunday, Sept. 6 at noon. The Blugolds are currently ranked sixth in the nation and first in the Central Region.