CCIW

[Gregory Sager]

So it looks like Carthage beat IWU last night in Overtime 2-1 to advance to the CCIW Tournament final.

No surprise there. Carthage is a better squad than IWU, in spite of the fact that the Titans finished with a slightly better CCIW record and significantly better overall record than the Red Men. Both times that Carthage beat Wesleyan this year they did it in Bloomington.

I was surprised to see that they played on a different night than North Park & North Central. 

Greg, do you know if there's a reason for that?  I just assumed both semi's would take place the same night. 

They usually do. However, Illinois Wesleyan is also hosting a semifinal in women's soccer. That creates a conflict, because it would be unfair if either the women or the men were relegated to playing a late-afternoon playoff match as the opener of a doubleheader. This year women's soccer apparently takes precedence over men's soccer in terms of scheduling semifinals, so the IWU men were moved to Tuesday.

Also, will there be video/audio/stats for tonight's NP v. NC game?

Yes. Link to the NPU site, same as always. I think that we're going to have multiple cameras again.

[markerickson]

Extremely poor turnout at NPU due to the rain that started well before game time.  The Vikings dominated the first half and led 1-0.  They went into turtle mode in the second half whereas NCC picked up the pace.  The Cards had several scoring chances, including a nullified goal as a result of an offside call.  It happened in the corner of the opposite side of the field where I sat; however, the NCC coach did not protest.

[Gregory Sager]

It was the right call. It was clearly offsides.

NPU definitely had a tougher time of it with North Central than it did a week ago, but the Vikings were still in control. NCC did have three or four decent chances to score in the match, including the one you mentioned, but NPU controlled the run of play throughout and dominated statistically. I'm just happy that the constant downpour and the slick ball didn't turn out to be equalizing factors.

So the Park moves on to face Carthage, which has become a pretty nasty rivalry in its own right. (I hope that we don't see any brawls like the postgame brouhaha after the draw a few weeks ago.) I do not expect Saturday's championship match to be a pretty one. Carthage's mucking up the contest and thus taking all of the flow out of the Vikings offense turned out to be a great strategy in the first contest between the two up in Kenosha, and I expect more of the same on Saturday.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park beat Carthage, 4-0, to win the CCIW tourney title and the autobid to the D3 playoffs. The match turned on a big play in the eighth minute in which NPU's Shatil Khoury broke free, advanced unopposed on Carthage keeper Niko Mavrogiannis a yard or so inside the top of the box, deked Mavrogiannis and sidestepped him, and was about to kick the ball into the empty net when the beaten Mavrogiannis kicked out and took out Khoury's legs. It was an obvious red card, and by sending off the Red Men's keeper that early it meant that Carthage would be forced to play a man down for almost 83 minutes of game time. The substitute keeper, Brayan Justiniano, made a diving stop of Gustav Ericsson's subsequent penalty kick, but Ericsson quickly put away the rebound to give NPU the 1- 0 lead.

Carthage deserves a lot of credit for furiously pressing and attacking for the entire match, but with a man missing it led to an awful lot of odd-man counters for NPU. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they had difficulty timing their releases, as they were called offsides four times in the first half alone. However, in the midst of those blown rushes they managed to do it the old-fashioned way by working the ball in for a sweet diagonal pass by Chase Lennartz that Khoury banged home to give NPU a 2-0 lead. Carthage kept hammering away, forcing a seemingly-endless series of corners, but the set pieces that worked for Carthage in Kenosha in mid-October weren't working tonight. Mathias Stulen stood up the Red Men and made some solid saves, but NPU's size advantage and the man advantage due to the red card really kept Carthage from making much of a threat off of sets. In the second half, Peder Olsen and Erlend Kemkers added tallies (making the final score Sweden 2, Norway 2  ), and the Vikings won going away.

Now it's sit-and-wait time, as the Vikings count down the hours until Monday at 12:30 pm, when they'll find out whether or not they'll be hosting an opening-weekend pod.

[markerickson]

I cannot believe the Vikings will not host.  As long as they keep winning, they should continue to host.

[Gregory Sager]

Congratulations to the North Park men's soccer team, which not only gets to host in next weekend's opening two rounds of the NCAA Division III tournament, but actually drew one of the two byes in the 62-team field. This means that NPU is the number-one seed in its quadrant of the bracket, and will be the prime candidate to host the sectional if the Vikings beat the winner of the Westminster (MO)/Wisconsin-Platteville match. Those two teams will play at NPU on Saturday, with the winner facing the Vikings on Sunday. Even though this will be NPU's seventh appearance in the D3 tourney, it will be the first time that the Park has ever hosted an NCAA Division III tournament soccer match.

[LM3]

North Park has truly had an excellent season, and has been a fun team to watch. Though I have no direct attachment to them, they will be a team that I am rooting for in this tourney!

[Shooter McGavin]

How good are they? I am surprised they got one of the two first round byes. Assumed they would get a nice draw but never expected the bye.

[LM3]

How good are they? I am surprised they got one of the two first round byes. Assumed they would get a nice draw but never expected the bye.

They have been excellent, but I guess we will be getting a better indication of how much so soon enough. I watched them in 3 matches, and a few sections of others...they control the run of play, consistently create good scoring chances, and have been appropriately lucky to get this far. I'll certainly defer to others that have seen more of them to give more thorough analysis, but that is my take.

[Shooter McGavin]

How good are they? I am surprised they got one of the two first round byes. Assumed they would get a nice draw but never expected the bye.

They have been excellent, but I guess we will be getting a better indication of how much so soon enough. I watched them in 3 matches, and a few sections of others...they control the run of play, consistently create good scoring chances, and have been appropriately lucky to get this far. I'll certainly defer to others that have seen more of them to give more thorough analysis, but that is my take.

Thanks for that! Good enough for a top 2 seed I guess is my real question. Shocked they got a bye but I have not seen them for more than 15 minutes this year. 

[PaulNewman]

How good are they? I am surprised they got one of the two first round byes. Assumed they would get a nice draw but never expected the bye.

They have been excellent, but I guess we will be getting a better indication of how much so soon enough. I watched them in 3 matches, and a few sections of others...they control the run of play, consistently create good scoring chances, and have been appropriately lucky to get this far. I'll certainly defer to others that have seen more of them to give more thorough analysis, but that is my take.

Thanks for that! Good enough for a top 2 seed I guess is my real question. Shocked they got a bye but I have not seen them for more than 15 minutes this year.

North Park could not have dreamed of a better set-up, with bye or without.  A deserving season, but a much easier path than other favorites.

[markerickson]

On Sunday, I traveled to MN for Uncle Ted's funeral.  Got back to the hotel with nine minutes left in the NPU game at 5-1.  Saw the final goal.  Also saw the highlight reel of the half dozen NPU goals.  They made it look easy.

[Gregory Sager]

If you want to watch the UWP @ NPU match in its entirely, Mark, it's on the North Park University Facebook page.

Saturday's match will be shown live on Facebook again as well.

[markerickson]

Sorry I missed the home-field victory against UST.  #2 son and I traveled to MN (early graduation present) to watch in person the MN Vikings dominate the #1 offense in the league...some team now playing back in L.A.

[Gregory Sager]

Again, Mark, you can watch it in full on NPU's Facebook page.