CCIW

[Gregory Sager]

North Central's men defeated Carthage Millikin 2-1, to improve their season record to 9-6, 2-3 in CCIW play.

FTFY.

Elmhurst @ NPU, which was postponed last night because of the thunderstorm, will be played tonight at 7:30 pm. AFAIK, it should be webcasted as usual.

[NCF]

North Central's men defeated Carthage Millikin 2-1, to improve their season record to 9-6, 2-3 in CCIW play.

FTFY.

Elmhurst @ NPU, which was postponed last night because of the thunderstorm, will be played tonight at 7:30 pm. AFAIK, it should be webcasted as usual.

Ooops! Was looking at the Carthage website to check on a some former students of mine who play at Carthage, my bad.

[Gregory Sager]

Current NCAA Central Region rankings:

1	Dominican	11-1-1	11-1-1
2	Wheaton (Ill.)	10-3-2	10-3-2
3	Illinois Wesleyan	11-2-0	11-2-0
4	Calvin	10-3-0	10-3-0
5	North Park	7-2-4	7-2-4
6	Olivet	11-1-1	13-1-1

[Gotberg]

Caught the second half of last night's NP v. Elm game.  NP sure moves the ball well and their finishing last night was outstanding.

The team doesn't have any obvious position holes and with so many new players (or previous players in new positions), perhaps they are starting to gel as a unit.  I still think they'll struggle where games focus on physicality and not technical skills.

[Gregory Sager]

Elmhurst's game is all about physicality, as we know. The Bluejays threw NPU off its game early with the rough stuff, but, to their credit, the Vikings eventually put retaliation out of their minds and simply got down to playing soccer. I think that last night was a lesson well learned for them; when they focus upon the task at hand and stop worrying about the pushing, shoving, and grabbing, they're a pretty good soccer team.

I agree that NPU is starting to gel as a unit. I only hope that it's not too late; the desultory and fragmented play of the Vikings early in the season dented their record enough so that they're playing catch-up in the region, and the draw with distinctly inferior Augie is really hurting NPU in the CCIW race as well.

[thePietist]

Any report from the NP-Carthage game?  Looks like there were 9 yellow cards, including a duet for Damberg that left NP a man down.  And 3 of those yellows came at the same time (38:55) according to the box score.  What in the world was going on?

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Any report from the NP-Carthage game?  Looks like there were 9 yellow cards, including a duet for Damberg that left NP a man down.  And 3 of those yellows came at the same time (38:55) according to the box score.  What in the world was going on?

there were fouls galore - npu had a two goal lead the carthage cut to one and nearly got the tying goal, but a very late shot in the crossbar.

excellent, exciting call of the game on the north park video - though the student did say "North Park University" about 50 times in the final two minutes.  he was a little excited.

[Gregory Sager]

Any report from the NP-Carthage game?  Looks like there were 9 yellow cards, including a duet for Damberg that left NP a man down.  And 3 of those yellows came at the same time (38:55) according to the box score.  What in the world was going on?

there were fouls galore - npu had a two goal lead the carthage cut to one and nearly got the tying goal, but a very late shot in the crossbar.

excellent, exciting call of the game on the north park video - though the student did say "North Park University" about 50 times in the final two minutes.  he was a little excited.

He's not a student. NPU soccer webcaster Marcos Craft is an NPU alumnus and former Vikings soccer player.

[Gregory Sager]

NPU just doesn't seem to be able to do things the easy way. After spotting an early goal to a Carthage side that clearly was playing with a sense of desperation, the Vikings finally were able to counter with a Robin Hals goal late in the first half after he'd intercepted an unsuccessful Red Men attempt at a clear from deep in their end.

The second half started auspiciously, when Filip Lindmark headed in a corner kick from Mike Herbst in the first minute. The problem was the ref, who was completely out of control. He was one of those officials you sometimes see in various sports who is both drunk with power and thin-skinned to the point of neurosis. He'd pull out a yellow card on you last night if you even looked at him funny; over half of the yellows in the game were for verbal infractions. It was ridiculous, but if you're a player you have to adjust to that and keep your mouth shut. A ref like that can easily influence a contest to the point where he determines who wins or who loses by his mood, and that could've happened last night after Carl Damberg got sent off with 36 minutes remaining and NPU only up by a goal.

Fortunately, Fredrik Greiff -- who has played some absolutely amazing soccer this past week while his parents are in town visiting from Sweden, leading John Born to remark after last night's match that he wishes Greiff's parents would stay in Chicago for a few extra weeks -- had a free-kick opportunity from straight on, 25 yards out, that he humpbacked over the Carthage wall and into the upper right corner of the goal, just below the crossbar. It was one of the prettiest goals I've seen in a long time. That shortie gave NPU some insurance, and the Vikings were plainly going to need it. Carthage just kept throwing everything it could at the Park's end of the field. The Red Men average a ridiculous four goals a game, well above everybody else in the league, and they've had 16 different players put it in the net at one time or another. Watching NPU play down a man for 36 minutes against a team like Carthage, even with a two-goal lead, felt like an eternity. But, just like the similar situation in the University of Chicago match, the Vikings proved up to the challenge. Carthage did pare the lead down to a goal with a late score in the 84th minute, but Tim Ahlberg showed why he's an All-CCIW goalkeeper by making some very impressive saves in the panicky final minutes, even though at one point there was a shot that deflected off the football crossbar and caromed back into play that was not called by the ref as having gone out of bounds and resulting in a goal kick.

NPU dodged another bullet, and kept its CCIW title hopes alive. But the Vikings have got to stop digging holes and then trying to find a way to climb out of them. They get too easily distracted by opponent goonery (Elmhurst) or irritable referees (Carthage). They need to focus on the task at hand right from the start of a match.

[NCF]

NC men picked up two victories this week-end. They beat Augie 2-0 and then on Senior Day, they dropped CUC 4-1.

[Gotberg]

Any report from the NP-Carthage game?  Looks like there were 9 yellow cards, including a duet for Damberg that left NP a man down.  And 3 of those yellows came at the same time (38:55) according to the box score.  What in the world was going on?

there were fouls galore - npu had a two goal lead the carthage cut to one and nearly got the tying goal, but a very late shot in the crossbar.

excellent, exciting call of the game on the north park video - though the student did say "North Park University" about 50 times in the final two minutes.  he was a little excited.

He's not a student. NPU soccer webcaster Marcos Craft is an NPU alumnus and former Vikings soccer player.

I always wondered who did the play by play.   If I were to criticize his style, it would also be the repeated "North Park University" phrase, rarely saying score/time, "Ladies and Gentleman" and finally, everything is a Golazo.

Generally, I think he does a pretty good job and I appreciate his dedication and the fact that he seems to really enjoy himself which is important.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't disagree with you, but I'd cut Marcos a lot of slack. Speaking as someone who webcasts NPU football games all by his lonesome, and who has done a few NPU basketball games solo as well, I have a healthy respect for the amount of talking that Marcos has to do in the course of a soccer match.

[NCF]

Congrats to North Central's Ricardo Serrano on being named the CCIW offensive player of the week.

[Gregory Sager]

Central Region rankings, as of today:

1	Dominican	13-2-1	13-2-1
2	Wheaton	12-3-2	12-3-2
3	Illinois Wesleyan	11-3-0	11-3-0
4	North Park	9-2-4	9-2-4
5	Calvin	12-3-0	12-3-0
T6	Chicago	7-3-4	7-3-4
T6	Olivet	12-2-1	14-2-1

[tjcummingsfan]

Those rankings will sure change... NP beats IWU down in Bloomington 4-2!