Minneapolis, MN -- After taking down the #1 seeded Providence Pilots in the NCCAA North Regional, the North Central University (NCU) men's soccer team would play for a regional championship and a chance to go to the NCCAA National Tournament in Kissimmee, Florida. They would take on a familiar opponent in the Crown College (CC) Polars. In UMAC regular season play, the Rams went 0-2 against the Polars. Today, the North Central would take Crown through the full 90 minutes, overtime, and into a shootout. Unfortunately, North Central would lose the shootout 3-5 as the Crown College Polars would be named the 2023 NCCAA North Region Champions.
In the first half, both teams struggled to find the back of the net as the score would stay tied up at zero for most of the first. In the 15th minute of the game, the Rams had a golden scoring opportunity as Elliott Lebsack found himself on a breakaway. However, just before the ball crossed the goal line a Polar defender brilliantly slid in front to deny him the score. Eventually, with 25 seconds left on the clock, Joseph Majerle would connect to Alex Chacich who would put the Rams up 1-0 over the Polars. This would be Chacich's 10th goal of the season. Crown would have 11 shots in the first half with four of them being on goal. Rams' keeper Jerad Buse would be able to shut down the Polars' offense as he saved all four shots on goal. NCU would go into halftime with a 1-0 lead over Crown.
In the second half, the Polars would be able to find the back of the net in the 49th minute to tie things at one apiece. The Rams would have a couple of chances to score to retake the lead, but would be unsuccessful in finding the back of the net. Crown would be unable to score another goal in the second half leaving things tied at the end of 90 minutes.
With the score tied at 1-1, Crown and North Central would head into overtime. Jerad Buse would make three key saves for the Rams to keep things knotted at one. Both teams' defenses would be able to prevent a go-ahead goal and at the end of the two overtime periods, the score would still be tied at one apiece to send the game to a penalty kick shootout to decide the winner.
In the shootout, both teams would score on their first attempt. However, the Rams would be unsuccessful on their second attempt with the Polars scoring theirs. Both teams would score in their fourth and Crown would score their fifth to put this one away and win the NCCAA North Region in overtime.
Today's box score can be found here.
Looking Ahead:
This concludes the 2023 season for the men. The Rams will bid farewell to five seniors including Christie Baw, Anthony Medina, Lars Brekhus, Elliott Lebsack, and Jerad Buse as well as Assistant Coach and the official voice of Rams Soccer Jack Dickhausen.
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.
