Simpson Soccer played Loras over the weekend, the men’s team defeated the Duhawks 2-1 in a nailbiter as they took the lead in the middle of the first half on a poke through by Iain Macrae.
Loras answered back in the second half with a goal from a penalty kick from Dani Galiana-Torres after a handball was called against Storm defender Sal Fratianni. Later in the second half, the Storm came back and scored on a corner kick from Zach Kline that was put in the back of the net by Grant Strickler.
This game was dominated by the Storm defense and goalkeeper as on 13 corner kicks, the Duhawks couldn’t score against the goalie Mason Chaplin. Meanwhile, the Storm only had 5 corner kick opportunities and managed to score on one of them.
It was Espoire Nkomezi who was the hero on defense making multiple key saves and being the man to win the ball back and facilitate down the field for his teammates. The Storm offense was anchored by midfielders Juan Sandoval and Kline.
The game got chippy at certain points, with one player from each side getting a yellow card in the game. There were 15 fouls total in the game, five of which were against the Duhawks while Simpson was booked with ten of their own.
The Simpson women also took on the Duhawks who are ranked 5th in the nation while the Storm sit just outside the top 25 at number 26. The Duhawks came in undefeated and boasting the best scoring defense in the nation facing off against the 12th ranked scoring offense in the Storm. Loras scored first as it was Isabel Rasmussen who opened the scoring midway through the first half.
The Duhawks went on the defensive from there and made life for the Storm offense very difficult as they would be held to nothing through the 90 minutes, despite having multiple chances against the top defense in the nation.
Meredith Downs, the goalkeeper for the Storm, played extremely well in the second half, making multiple key saves to keep Simpson within one goal. The defense surrounding her was equally as impressive through the entirety of the game with Pepper Earle, Maddie Hays, Avery Plathe and Elle Street acting as a brick wall in front of Downs after the first goal was allowed.
The Duhawks made a point to take reigning All-American forward Cassie Nash out of the game as much as possible. Nash had a very quiet first half before exploding in the second half having multiple touches and nearly scoring a goal off of a corner from Hailey Kowzan. Nash totaled 3 shots in the second half with two of them being on target against the smothering Loras defense.
The game ended with a 40 yard shot from Avery Plathe that went just over the crossbar and would have tied the game with under 10 seconds to play. The Storm had their unbeaten streak snapped with their first loss of the season.
The Storm soccer teams play against Dubuque at Buxton Stadium on Oct. 23 and follow it up with games against Coe at home as well on Oct. 29.
