NDSU vs. University of Minnesota-Crookston – September 16, 2006

The Bison trounced the University of Minnesota-Crookston Golden Eagles on a soggy Saturday evening in Fargo. The game was never in doubt as NDSU dominated play for the full 90 minutes with nearly all of the play in Crookston’s half of the field. The scoring started in the 12th minute when forward Dmitri Barabanov was taken down in the box for a penalty kick. Sham Funk took the shot and the goalie made the save, but Barabanov was right there for the rebound and put a shot past the UMC keeper. Four minutes later, Fernando Bales found Selam Ahmed in the box with a cross as Ahmed headed in his first goal of the game. Ahmed struck again in the 20th minute off of a rebound from a Josh VandenBos shot. Brent Nelson got his first goal of the season in the 33rd minute when Ahmed sent in a cross from the right side of the field. Brad Bateman got a piece of the ball before Nelson headed it in. Nelson was back at it 2 minutes later when he scored the goal of the night with an excellent diving header from Ricky Urbina’s cross. Bateman notched the final goal of the first half after some nice give-and-go passing with Tom Erickson.

The Bison were kept off the board for most of the second half, but they continued to play well and control every facet of the game. NDSU was able to give their reserves a lot of playing time thanks to the large lead and the Bison showed their depth with the substitutes playing admirably. The Bison scored their first goal of the second half in the 82nd minute. Erickson, one of the NDSU’s goalkeepers playing in the field on this evening, scored on an assist from midfielder Charles Ong after having two goals called back due to offsides calls. The last two goals of the evening finished off hat tricks for two NDSU players. Nelson scored his third of the night by running down a booming punt from NDSU goalkeeper Zach Schneider and putting a high chip over the Golden Eagle keeper. Ahmed wrapped up his hat trick in the 90th minute with Ardy Mahinfalah providing the assist. Bison goalie Zach Schneider made 4 relatively easy stops for his second shutout of the season. The convincing win raised NDSU’s record to 3-1-1 (2-1-1 in the conference) while Minnesota-Crookston fell to 1-2.