Box Score ST. PAUL, Minn. – North Central men's soccer went on the road Wednesday afternoon to St. Paul, Minnesota to face the Eagles of University of Northwestern-St. Paul. In the close contest, the Rams emerged victorious with a final score of 1-0. This is the second matchup between the Rams and the Eagle. In both games the Rams went home with a win.
Despite being outshot 8-5, in the first half, the possession exchanged back and forth between the Rams and Eagles. However, two minutes into the second half and in the 47th minute of play Noah Ramsby (Detroit, Mich./Parkway Christian) scored for the Rams with an assist from Kaleb Smith (Kijabe, Kenya/Rift Valley Academy). The Rams kept pressure throughout the second half looking for the second goal but could not break the back line of the Eagles defense.
For the Rams defense, Gabe Hartwig (Eagle River, Wis./Northland Pines) had 7 saves recorded for his 6th shutout of the season. With this win, Hartwig leads the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) in goals against average (.762), save percentage (.871), and shutouts (6). A complete list of 2016 UMAC statistics can be found here.
Head Coach Jake Smith said after the game, "We buckled down on defense in the last 15 minutes. It was nice to see the things we did in practice pay off."
This win puts the Rams at a 7-4 record on the season and 2-2 within the conference. The Rams hope to keep the winning momentum going into the weekend in a conference rematch against the Knights of Martin Luther. Game time for the contest in New Ulm, Minn. is scheduled to kick off at 1:00 p.m. From this point forward in the season all games against UMAC teams will feature the men's teams first and the women's teams second. After Saturday, the Rams will return home to face on Tuesday October 11th versus Crown College and Saturday October 15th Northland College during "The Week," North Central University's homecoming event. Both games will start at 1:00 p.m. Live video and stats can be found here for both the Crown and Northland games.
