KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Northwestern College men’s soccer team (9-1-1, 5-0 GPAC) move up to spots to No. 21 in this week’s National Association Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) coaches’ poll, the league office announced this morning.
The Raiders are coming off two Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) wins last week, in their first week as a ranked team in program history. In their first game as a ranked team, the Raiders got down 2-0 early by halftime. But the then No. 23-ranked Raiders would not be deterred scoring two goals in the second half to send the game into overtime, thanks to a 47th minute goal from Johannes von Saldern (So., Jena, Germany/Otto Schott Gymnasium) and a 61st minute goal by Luke Happer (Fr., Overland Park, Kan./Saint James Academy). Adam De Boer (So., Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) would net the game-winning goal in overtime with 12 seconds left to go in the period to allow the Raiders to escape Yankton, S.D. with the victory.
In a completely different story, Northwestern turned it on against Jamestown, scoring a season-high four goals in their fifth shutout of the season. It was all Raiders against the Jimmies as James Bolger (Jr., Boyle, Republic of Ireland/Abbey Community College) finds the back of the net to start the scoring in the 33rd minute. Joshua Wingfield (Sr., Bronx, N.Y./Polytech) nets a 60th minute goal, followed five minutes later by the shot-of-the-year by Marco Alessio (So., Chioggia, Italy/Liceo Ciuseppe Veronese) in the 65th minute. Stan van den Beld (Fr., Voorhout, Netherlands/Rijnlands Lyceum Sassenheim) would net the final goal of the contest, converting a penalty kick in the 88th minute.
Northwestern has netted 20 goals this season to their opponents eight against them. Juan Mackrey (Sr., Balcare, Argentina/Georgia Military College) still leads the Raider attack with five goals on the season, notching a team-leading 10 points. Luc Roelofs (So., Nederasselt, Netherlands/Kandinsky College) leads the team with three assists. Junior goalkeeper Ezekiel Foltz (Sioux Center, Iowa/Sioux Center) has collected all nine wins in the net.
Northwestern is the only representative of the GPAC this week.
The Raiders are set to play host to the Dakota Wesleyan University Tigers (2-9, 1-3 GPAC) this evening at the NWC Soccer Complex with kickoff scheduled for 7:15 p.m.
