Minneapolis, MN -- Today, the first round of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) North Region Men's and Women's Soccer Tournaments kicked off at Elliot Park Field. The #4 ranked North Central University (NCU) men's soccer team faced off against the #4 Oak Hills Christian College (OHCC) Wolfpack in a round one play-in game. The Rams entered this game following a 5-11-1 regular season where they went 2-2 in NCCAA play. Oak Hills entered this match after going winless in the regular season. The Rams would see production from many players as 7 different Rams would find the back of the net against the Wolfpack. NCU would win this one 8-1 to advance to the semifinal game.
The Rams would come out on the attack early in this one as they fired 3 shots in the first five minutes of action. The first score came in the 14th minute as Rodrigo Burgos sent a beautiful crosser into the box for Santiago Grams to head it home. This freshman-to-freshman connection would put the Rams up 1-0 on OHCC. Not long after, the Rams would strike again as Ulrich Mvogo set a missile into the top right corner of the net off a nice feed from Alvin Wlejleh. NCU would score their third goal in the 37th minute, this time it was Alvin Wlejleh on the scoring end and Diego Zavala Varela picking up the assist. North Central dominated the half with a 13 to 1 shot advantage over Oak Hills. The buzzer sounded and NCU held a comfortable 3-0 lead.
It would not take long for the Rams to put another one in the scoring column as sophomore Alex Chacich found the back of the net off the dish from senior Lars Brekhus to put NCU up 4-0. Around the 60th minute, Coach Montgomery wisely turned to her reserves as this game was easily in hand. Immediately following the wave of substitutions, North Central would rattle off back-to-back goals to put themselves up 6-0. First, forward Pasquali Smith would score off another feed from Lars Brekhus and then forward Ryan Puccini would get in on the scoring action with a score off the assist from Sergio Juarez Dominguez. Then six minutes of action would go by before senior captain Elliott Lebsack would bury one into the net off the feed from freshman Pasquali Smith. Down by a massive 7-0 deficit, the Wolfpack would finally score in the 78th minute. Oak Hills gave up an additional 21 shots to the Rams and only were able to muster 3 shots themselves in half number two. After an own goal in the 83rd minute, the Rams carry an 8-1 lead into the final seconds of this one to walk away with the win.
Today's box score can be found here.
Looking Ahead:
The Rams advance to the semifinal round tomorrow where they face off with the #1 ranked Providence Pilots. NCU and PUC will square off right here at Elliot Park at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow!
All fans are encouraged to tune into the official Rams Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter pages for updates on men's soccer and all things NCU Athletics.
