Northwest Ends Tech’s CCC Unbeaten Streak in Overtime
Klamath Falls, Ore. – The Northwest University Eagles squared off against the Hustlin’ Owls of Oregon Tech for a top of the table battle on Friday afternoon. The Eagles entered the match with an overall record of 8-2, and sitting in a three way tie for second place in the CCC at 4-1, while the Owls come in sitting at the top of the CCC with a record of 5-0-1 and an overall record of 8-1-2.
The game kicked off with the Owls flying at the Eagles creating the first five shooting opportunities of the game over a period of 15 minutes, and the sixth chance was capitalized on. A great ball wide down the right flank found Tech forward, Jackson Wold, with a time and space to send his cross inside the penalty area, finding forward Lodewijk Bloemzaad who flicked the ball on to teammate Lucas Hale. Hale seized his moment in front of the goal and buried his chance past NU goalkeeper Daniel Christenson to give the Owls a 1-0 lead.
2 minutes later, an NU attack would find a through ball inside the Owls penalty area, where the Tech defense would bring down the player, forcing the center official to award a penalty kick to NU. Eagles forward, Chris Iacolucci, stepped up to the spot kick and tucked away his chance on Owls goalkeeper Dino Rozac.
Play would continue back and forth with both teams finding opportunities again to score. Tech forwards Daniel Blessinger and Jackson Wold found themselves in tremendous scoring positions shortly after conceding the penalty kick, but the NU keeper, Christensen, held strong in goal as he was able to parry Blessinger’s curling shot outside the post, while Wold’s strike drifted just wide of the goal mouth.
In the 32
nd minute the drama would ramp up again, as Owls midfielder, Joey Driessen, would strike a ball from on top of the penalty area, hitting an outstretched NU defenders arm, being called a handball in the box and a penalty kick awarded to the Owls. Bloemzaad would step to the spot for the Owls penalty kick, only to be denied by NU keeper Christensen on the shot. Play would come to a close at the half with the score line in deadlock 1-1.
The second half of play would be a battle back and forth between the two teams, with the Owls forcing the NU keeper to hold fast in his net, making 8 saves on Tech’s 9 second half shots. With both teams tiring towards the end of regulation play, the official would blow the whistle sending the game into a golden goal overtime.
Both Tech and Northwest came out of regulation looking like revitalized teams with the game now hinging on the golden goal. The Eagles and the Owls would duel back and forth for the first 10 minutes of overtime, mostly in the midfield, with neither team getting off a shot.
In the second overtime period, Northwest was able to find two opportunities to challenge Rozac in goal, one Rozac would come up with the save and the other the game finishing shot. Senior midfielder, Kyle Zimmerman, would find himself with the ball inside the Tech penalty area, played to him by teammate Travis Jordan, as he was able to slot past Rozac to end the dramatic contest.
Coach Matt Munhall comments, “Daniel Christensen had a tremendous game in goal, making 13 saves on 14 of our shots that were on frame. NU made the most of their chance at the end when it counted most. This Tech group is still a young team and learning how to handle wins and losses, while also learning valuable lessons in the face of adversity.”
Northwest now moves to 5-1 in CCC play as they head to Ashland, Oregon to take on the SOU Raiders, while Oregon Tech drops to 5-1-1 in the CCC and will host The Evergreen State College on Saturday at 2pm.