ST. PAUL, MINN. – The University of Northwestern men's soccer team (3-4-1, 2-2 UMAC) secured a 3-2 overtime victory over Crown College (2-7-1, 2-2 UMAC) in Tuesday night's home contest.
Throughout a hard-fought 45:00 minutes, both teams remained scoreless as the first half came to a close. Despite the fact that the period was quite calm, the Eagles managed to fire off six corner kicks and five shots.
The second half action took off as
Mateusz Gralinski (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi) netted the first goal at the 51' to give Northwestern a 1-0 lead, as
Sam Diatta (Ziguinchor, Senegal/St. Paul Central) marked the assist. Though UNW defense stood their ground, CC buried a goal eight minutes later to make it a 1-1 tie game.
Shortly following Crown's first,
Nathan Olin (Somerset, Wis./Somerset) headed in a goal off of
Chris Cleope (Waterloo, Iowa./Waterloo West)'s corner kick at the 63' to take a 2-1 lead. CC then tapped in their last at the 85', which sent the match into overtime.
Four minutes into the final period,
Derrick Aminga (Andover, Minn./Andover) scored the game-winning goal to allow the Eagles to clinch a 3-2 OT victory over Crown. Aminga's goal was assisted by Cleope, who logged two assists to finish off the evening.
As a team, UNW concluded with 18S / 8SOG, as Crown capped off with 16S / 4SOG.
The game leaders on the night were Aminga (5S / 2SOG / 1G), Olin (1S / 1SOG / 1G), Gralinski (2S / 2SOG / 1G), and
Chris Cleope (Waterloo, Iowa./Waterloo West) (4S / 2SOG / 2A).
The Eagles will continue conference play on Saturday, October 1st, as they host Bethany Lutheran at Reynolds Field. Kickoff is set for 4:15 p.m. Fans can find more information at unweagles.com.
