NDSU vs. Jamestown College – October 4, 2006

The Bison showed off their offensive skills and took care of business at home, winning a non-conference home matchup against the Jamestown Jimmies on a chilly Wednesday night in Fargo. NDSU didn’t waste any time getting the scoring going and they notched their first goal just 28 seconds in. After some great passing and a quick through ball, Fernando Bales sent a perfect cross to Selam Ahmed in front of the net who sent a solid shot to the back of the net. NDSU scored again in the 9th minute when Sham Funk put just the right pace on a through pass to Brad Bateman. Bateman fired a low, hard shot into the side netting to give the Bison an early 2-0 lead. NDSU continued to dominate and keep the ball deep in the Jimmies’ end for the next 15 minutes of the half. In the 23rd minute, Tom Erickson, one of the Bison goalkeepers who was playing forward on this evening, tallied his first goal of the game off another nice assist from Bales. For the remainder of the first half, the Bison’s level of play regressed and Jamestown was able to get a couple of chances on net. Goalie Zach Schneider made a couple of nice saves to keep Jamestown off the board and the Bison took their 3-0 lead into halftime.

The second half started just like the first, with a quick NDSU goal in the first minute. Bateman returned the favor from his earlier goal and sent a well-timed ball past the Jamestown defense right to Funk streaking up the field, who proceeded to send a rocket of a shot past the helpless keeper. Ten minutes later, the Bison scored on a bang-bang play off a corner kick. Yousif Ramses put the corner right into the middle of the box, and after Funk got a piece of it with his head, Ahmed got a foot to the ball which deflected off of a Jamestown defender and in. Not even a minute later, Bateman got his second goal of the game, a carbon copy of his first one with Ahmed providing the assist this time. In the 61st minute, the Bison made a huge defensive mistake that proved to be costly. After a ball skipped through the NDSU midfield and defense, defender Ardy Mahinfalah sprinted back to corral the ball with a Jamestown forward pursuing him. As Schneider came off his line and called for the ball, Mahinfalah misunderstood and dropped the ball for his keeper off to the side. Unfortunately, Schneider cut towards the inside trying to get the ball, and the Jamestown forward picked up the loose ball and easily chipped it in. The Bison recovered from the error with two quick goals in the 68th and 69th minute. Garett Johnson put an absolutely flawless free kick directly to the foot Erickson, who knocked in his second goal of the game. Right after that, Johnson made a super run down the right end line and dished it off to the top of the box. Dmitri Barabanov was there to sneak a hard shot just past the keeper to make the score 8-1. In the 78th minute, Erickson completed his hat trick with a sweet volley from a well-placed Ramses cross. The Bison now stand with an 8-1-1 record for the 2006 campaign (6-1-1 in the GPSC).