Opening Season Split

The Plainsmen soccer team opened their season on the road this past weekend by first traveling to Powell, WY to play against the Northwest Trappers.  The Plainsmen wanted to start the season off with two road wins, but the Trappers had other ideas.

 Right from the start of the game, both teams were advancing the ball and had their opportunities to strike, but it wasn't until the 18:00 mark when Paul Liagre was able to get the first goal of the game with the assist coming from Dani van Steign.  The men kept the lead for only a short while until Northwest tied it up 1-1 at the 29:00 point in play.  The game remained tied until half, and the Plainsmen knew they had to clean up their play in order to come away with the victory.

With the second half of play beginning, the Plainsmen kept being aggressive and strategic with their game, but at the 54:00 mark, Northwest but one in the back of the net to gain the 2-1 lead.  Not wanting to let them keep the momentum, Mustafa Nadeem brought the game back to a tie at the 67:00 mark with Dani van Steign adding another assist to his stats.  That lead did not last long as Northwest added the final goal of the game at the 68:00 mark, giving the Trappers the lead, which would eventually lead to the Plainsmen loss.

On Saturday, NJC knew the sun would be out the next day and were looking to turn their opening game frustrations into a victory against the Pronghorns.  The men knew Gillette would be a tough competition and knew they had to bring it in order to come out with a victory.

In the opening minutes of the match, the teams were trying to figure out each other and the type of play they were up against, but Gillette was able to get score first at 8:00 to give them the 1-0 lead.  The Plainsmen knew that they had a lot of game left to get that point back, so as long as they played their game, they would be fine.  As the game went back and forth, and no major attacks were being made, it was at the 38:00 mark when the Pronghorns tacked another point on to give them the 2-0 lead.  Now that NJC was down by two in the first half, and that last time they were behind in a game did not turn out so well, they had to change something up.

At halftime, head coach Dave Groves was able to coach them up because the second half was a completely different team.  The Plainsmen were playing solid defense and kept attacking the Pronghorns, until finally at the 49:00 mark were able to score when Koen Romme was able to serve one up and Dani van Steign put it in the back of the net.  Shortly after, Koen Romme was able to get a goal of his own from Miguel Palma at the 54:00 mark, which would tie the game up 2-2.  From there it was all NJC as scoring game fast and often.  At the 67:00 mark, James Berndt gave a perfect pass to Miguel Palma who put it past the keeper.  At 75:00, Gaeton Garcia got his first collegiate goal from the assit of Arthur Prunis.  At the 81:00 mark, Koen Romme got his second goal of the day as Chance Vang dished a beauty of a pass to give him the assist.  Lastly at the 89:00 mark, Olav Sieljes got the final goal of the game as Robbert Daemen gave him the assist.  The game ended up 6-2 with the Plainsmen getting the victory.

Soccer will be back in action on Wednesday August 30 at HOME as they host Colorado Northwestern CC.  Game starts at 2pm.