Cobbers Complete Shutout Weekend
MOORHEAD, Minn. (9/11/10)-- Concordia completed their shutout weekend by blanking Augustana (Ill.) 1-0 on Sunday. The win follows a 1-0 overtime victory the Cobbers posted over St. Scholastica on Friday. Both opponents were regionally ranked.
Concordia used a penalty kick goal in the 11th minute against Augustana to come away with the one-goal victory. The Vikings came into the weekend ranked eighth in the latest NSCAA Central Region Poll.
CC was awarded the penalty kick after Riley McGlynn lofted a perfectly paced pass over the Vikings defense and fellow forward Jared Rice ran onto the ball with only the goalie to beat. Rice took two touches and went past the onrushing keeper. Rice was then tripped up by the goalie as he was about to collect the ball and tap it into the open net. Concordia was given a penalty kick and much to the chagrin of the CC coaching staff, the Augustana goalie was only given a yellow card and not thrown out for stopping the clear-cut scoring chance. McGlynn then hammered home the ensuing spot kick and CC was up 1-0 at the 10:15 mark. For McGlynn it was his first goal of the season after scoring 16 times last season .
The Cobbers kept the offensive momentum rolling and continued to pressure the Vikings defensive end of the field for the remainder of the opening period. Augustana had the best chance of the opening half but a shot from 25 yards out was deftly turned over the bar by Cobber keeper Peter Runquist.
Cnocordia spent most of the second half o their heels trying to preserve the 1-0 lead. The Cobbers had a pair of quality opportunities but both attempts were turned back by Auggie goalie Tyler Cowherd. McGlynn broke free on the left wing and pounded a low shot the Cowherd covered up and then wing midfielder Michael Forston's crossing attempt was smothered by Cowherd with Rice standing all alone on the back post.
Runquist kept the scoresheet clean with several big stops in the final 20 minutes and got a huge helping hand from Forston. Runquist made two full-out diving saves on balls labeled for the corner. The biggest chance of the game for the Vikings came in the final minutes of play. After a goal mouth scramble left Runquist scrambling in the middle of the box, an Augustana attacker lofted the ball over Runquist and towards the open goal. Forston made a terrific defensive read and recovered behind Runquist and was then able to kick the ball away from goal as it was about to cross the goal line.
Augustana held a 15-8 edge in overall shots and an 8-3 margin in shots on goal. The Vikings also had a decided 8-2 advantage in corner kicks. Runquist stopped all eight shots while Cowherd came away with two saves on the day. Runquist now has three shutouts on the season after having two in all of 2010.
The Cobbers are now 3-2 on the year and will open conference play when they travel to St. Paul to take on Hamline on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 2 p.m.
