NDSU vs. Minnesota State University-Moorhead – October 13, 2006

NDSU and rival MSUM battled to a tie on a chilly Friday evening in Fargo. Both teams played an intense, physical style of play throughout the entire 90 minutes, which is usually the case when these two squads meet. The first 20 minutes or so consisted of both sides getting a feel for each other, with the majority of play staying in the middle of the field. One could tell from the start that the teams were very closely matched, and the play reflected that. In the 27th minute, the Bison took advantage of a critical mistake by the Dragons goalkeeper. Selam Ahmed intercepted a poor outlet pass from the keeper, made a quick move past him, and walked the ball into the net to give NDSU the 1-0 lead. This really seemed to energize NDSU, and they controlled most of the play for the remainder of the first half. They had another great scoring opportunity late in the first half when Brad Bateman made an incredible run down the left side and dumped the pass off to Dmitri Barabanov standing wide open on top of the box. However, Barabanov’s shot wasn’t far enough away from the keeper, who easily pounced on the ball to preserve the one goal differential. MSUM also had a good scoring chance late in the first half from a bullet header off of a corner kick, but Bison goalie Tom Erickson made a brilliant save. Just before halftime, a Dragon player was ejected from the game for some extreme dissent towards the referee. The Bison went into halftime with an advantage on the scoreboard and in the number of field players with the Dragons reduced to ten men.

Instead of seizing the opportunity of being a man up in the second half, the Bison seemed to be content with their lead, playing with much less urgency than in the first 45 minutes. It didn’t take long for MSUM to strike back on the Bison’s tentative play. In the 56th minute, the Dragons scored off of a frantic scramble in front of the NDSU net that seemed to bounce off five players from each team. Defender Bob Smith nearly cleared the ball away to safety, but his last-ditch slide to get the ball off the goal line bounced off the inside of the post and into the net to tie the game. The remainder of the game was very intense, with a lot of back-and-forth action by both sides. Although both teams had good chances to get the game winner, neither could capitalize as the game ended in a draw. The tie put NDSU’s record to 8-3-2 on the year (6-3-2 in the conference) while MSUM went to 6-2-3.