NDSU vs. California-Berkeley – November 18, 2005

The Bison’s season ended with a hard fought 2-0 loss to a very talented University of California-Berkeley squad. The game started out very evenly contested, with both teams getting used to each other and the majority of play in the middle of the field. Both defenses played very disciplined and effective soccer, so neither team had very many good chances. Towards the end of the first half, the Bears started taking over the flow of play and getting more opportunities on net. However, Bison goalkeeper Andrew Seaver made some great saves and the California forwards missed a couple of shots just wide, and the halftime score was 0-0. During halftime, one could tell that the Bison team was incredibly fatigued while playing their third game in 24 hours. Unfortunately, they were unable to bring a full squad thanks to some players claiming to have previous obligations during the weekend, and the Bears took over the second half. Just three minutes into the second stanza, Cal-Berkeley sent a bunch of players forward and scored after a scramble in front of the NDSU net to take the lead. In the 50th minute, the bears struck again off a well-placed shot just inside the box to extend their lead to 2 goals. The Bison played their hardest throughout the rest of the game, but they were unable to mount any semblance of an attack against the solid Cal-Berkeley defense. The Bears had a handful of solid opportunities to go up by more in the second half, but Seaver had a few more great saves to keep the score at 2-0. The Bison ended up in a three-way tie for second place in their group with Wisconsin-Stout and Georgia Southern (with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinals), but Georgia Southern advanced thanks to a better goal differential in pool play.