NDSU at University of North Dakota – October 15, 2006

NDSU and UND played their second nail-biting, controversial game of the 2006 season on a pleasant October Sunday afternoon in Grand Forks. The Bison wanted to get a good start to put pressure on the Sioux, and they did just that. In the 4th minute, NDSU put together some of their signature quick, precise passing through the midfield. The ball ended up at Brad Bateman’s feet just outside the 18 yard box, who sent a perfectly paced through ball to midfielder Fernando Bales. Bales chipped an excellent shot past the UND keeper to give the Bison the early lead. NDSU continued to play very well and earn the lion’s share of the possession throughout the first half. However, they couldn’t get another tally on the board despite some very close calls. The Sioux’s basic strategy in the first half was to send long balls to their speedy star forward, but the Bison defense of Bob Smith, Dan Salyards, Kellen Nesvig, John Charles and Jared Misialek along with goalkeeper Zach Schneider did a great job of helping each other out and shutting down all opportunities. Although both teams were playing at a high level, only Bales’ goal was on the board at halftime.

Both teams started the second half with a ton of intensity and the game became rather physical. Unfortunately, the center referee seemed incredibly overwhelmed by the level of play, inexplicably admitting to both teams that he “couldn’t keep up” with the teams as the game quickly slipped away from his control. Regrettably, the second half was more about blown calls and controversy than the solid play that dominated the first half. The list of mind-boggling calls and non-calls against both teams throughout the rest of the game is simply too long to go into detail. Early on in the second half, UND’s main source of offense was ejected from the game for swearing at the referee, one of the few justified rulings the referee made in the game. However, for the second straight game, the Bison seemed to relax too much when they were rewarded the man advantage. The Sioux started to play with a more balanced attack and NDSU allowed them to win more and more 50-50 balls. In the 73rd minute, UND was able to get on the board from a nice shot to the upper right corner of the net. It was one of the very few times in the game that the Bison midfield of Brad Bateman, Bales, Josh VandenBos, Yousif Ramses and Brent Nelson didn’t follow their marking assignments, and the Sioux took advantage. With about eight minutes remaining, Ramses was called for a completely incidental (yet quite obvious) hand ball in the box, and the Sioux were rewarded a penalty kick. Schneider made a great kick save to keep the score at 1-1. After a few more questionable calls and decent scoring chances for both sides that went by the wayside, the game finally came to an end as a draw. The Bison’s second straight tie moved their record to 8-3-3 (6-3-3 in the conference) while UND’s record now stands at 8-2-2.