Box Score Box Score
DULUTH, Minn. – With less than one minute left in the second overtime the St. Scholastica men's soccer team scored on an own goal to hand the University of Minnesota-Morris its first conference loss 2-1 this afternoon at a wet Saints Field.
The Saints improve to 14-2-2 overall and 11-1-1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC). The Cougars fall to 14-4-0 overall and 12-1-0 in the conference.
In a back-and-forth struggle for most of the day, the Cougars struck first in the 79th minute when Brent Diggs scored to make it 1-0 Cougars. Then due to the weather conditions at Saints Field, the scoreboard malfunctioned, which meant the officials had to keep the time on the field for the last five minutes.
Morris looked to be on its way to the victory, but the Saints had one final free kick from 40 yards out with four seconds left. With all of the Saints, including goalkeeper #Sam Reed# (
So.-Eastbourne, England/Causeway), in the Morris goal area waiting for the free kick, #Greg Doornink# (
Jr.-Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) sent in a great ball, which touched the hand of Morris player and the official ruled a penalty shot for the Saints with no time on the clock.
#Toby Peter# (
Jr.-Spalt, Germany/J.S. Bach) stepped up to the plate and delivered to tie the match and send it into overtime tied at 1-1. The Saints had been just 1-for-5 this season on penalty kicks prior to that one.
There was not a shot on net in the first 10-minute overtime session so we went to a second and final overtime. The Saints had an opportunity five minutes into the second overtime, but #Cody Sveiven# (
Jr.-Coon Rapids, Minn.) hit the post on a shot.
With less than a minute left until the match ended in a tie, the Saints played a simple ball towards the Morris goal and a Cougar defender deflected it past his goalkeeper and into the net to give CSS a dramatic 2-1 victory.
The Cougars out-shot the Saints 21-14 in the match.
Sam Reed (Eastbourne, England/Causeway School) made eight critical saves to earn the win in net for St. Scholastica. Tyler Webber made five saves in the loss for Minnesota-Morris.
Morris can still clinch a UMAC regular season title with a win against Presentation College next Saturday or a Saints loss or tie on Friday to Northland. If CSS wins and Morris loses, then the Saints are conference champions.
The Saints will go out of conference one final time in the regular season when it hosts border rival, the University of Wisconsin-Superior, on Wednesday at Saints Field. The match will begin at 3 p.m. and can be seen live, courtesy of the iFan Sports Network, at csssaints.com.
