On Oct. 4, the Simpson women’s soccer team won 5-0, while the men fell short in a close game, 3-2.
The women are now 6-3-2 overall and undefeated 2-0 in conference play. They’ve beaten Nebraska Wesleyan University seven games in a row and haven’t given up a single goal in those matchups.
In the first half, sophomore Allie McCoy broke through in the 54th minute with her first goal of the season. Sophomore Savannah Schneider then scored her first goal, assisted by senior Elle Street.
Senior Brissa Valdez, who’s back after missing almost a year with an injury, scored a big goal in the 81st minute off a cross from junior Pepper Earle. Just a few minutes later, freshman Taylor Smith scored and set up sophomore Georgia Paulson to end the scoring in the 88th minute.
Simpson also dominated the shots, outshooting Nebraska Wesleyan 28 to 5, and goalie junior Meredith Downs helped the team with her saves.
Paulson, who’s now scored in three straight games, gave a shoutout to her teammates for the support.
“I give all the credit to my teammates. They are seriously such an incredible group of girls to be around, and I wouldn’t be able to find any success without them and their support and encouragement,” she said.
She also said their energy on offense has been a total game-changer.
For Valdez, scoring after coming back from injury was special.
“When I was hurt, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get back to where I was on the field. Scoring that goal meant a lot, and the way everyone reacted showed that,” she said.
She also mentioned she wants to lead by example this season, win a conference title and hopefully make it to the NCAA Tournament.
On the men’s side, the game started off well but didn’t end in Simpson’s favor. Nebraska Wesleyan scored early in the 11th minute, but senior Mitchell Dickson responded right back with his sixth goal of the season.
Sophomore Iain Macrae then gave Simpson a 2-1 lead before halftime, but Nebraska Wesleyan scored twice in the second half to pull off the comeback.
Dickson said the team was lacking mentally.
“Soccer is a 90 minute game and is usually decided by just a single goal, so you need to be organized and alert the whole 90 minutes and turning off for just a single minute here or there can cost you the game,” he said.
Despite the loss there were good plays to take away. Macrae stayed positive after the game.
“Even though the result didn’t go our way, we played really well in the first half and showed what we can do as a team. We gave ourselves a lot to build on from this performance.” he said.
Both teams are now looking forward to their next matchup against Central College on Oct. 8th. The women kick off at 5 p.m., and the men follow at 7:30 p.m.
The women want to keep the momentum going after a big win, while the men hope to bounce back after a close loss.
