MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.- UNW Men's Soccer traveled to face conference foe North Central in the UMAC opener on Saturday night. It was an evenly matched game throughout, headlined by the strong defenses from both squads. North Central broke through in the second overtime, and defeated the Eagles 1-0.

Goals were hard to come by all night, but the Eagles came out of the gate creating scoring opportunities. In the first half at Elliot Park Field, the Eagles fired nine shots (seven of those shots were on net) and kept the Rams' goalkeeper Sam Thurson busy. The story of the first half was the suffocating defense played by the entire Eagles squad from front to back, as they only allowed three shots by the Rams in the first half.

Things opened up a bit in the second half, and the Eagles' offense stayed on the attack. Northwestern fired 13 more shots in the second half but were still unable to find a winner. The match transitioned into overtime, where play continued to be evenly matched. Defense remained the story, and the match entered a second overtime still remarkably tied at zero.

In the second overtime, it was the home team that finally found the back of the net. It was Elliot Lebsack who scored in the 109^th minute, and the marathon match finally came to an end, with the Rams winning 1-0.

The Eagles were the aggressors all night long and outshot the Rams 27-15. The Eagles also forced more action from the goalkeeper as the Eagles led the shots on goal category 17-5. Jonathan-Thomas Olsen (Modesto, Calif./James Enochs High) led the way for the UNW offense as he fired six shots, four of those on goal. Koby Wesselink (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Linn-Mar High School), the Eagles leading goal scorer in 2021, was a factor as well getting off four shots, putting three of them on net. Alejandro Alfaro (Murrieta, Calif./Vista Murrieta) added three shots of his own, all of them on target.

The Eagles will look to bounce back and collect their first UMAC win of the season as they travel to St. Bonifacius to take on Crown College on Friday, September 24^th.