NDSU vs.
The home team NDSU
took the field across from Augustana on a beautiful Sunday morning at the
“early” hour of 11 AM. Little did they know when the game started that this
would be the most remarkable and exciting game that they would have so far this
season. However, if the Bison weren’t struggling to shake of their grogginess
on this particular morning, it sure looked like they were. In contrast,
Augustana looked sharp and aggressive, stepping hard to loose balls and
launching strong attacks. They capitalized when an Augustana striker dribbled
into the box after receiving a through pass, followed closely by sweeper Bobby
Smith. As he approached the goal line, he found himself wide of the net, so in
an act of what might have been called desperation, he poked a low angle shot to
the far side of the goal that plinked off the post and into the net for a 1–0
lead.
NDSU showed a
glimmer of life when they created a scramble in front of the Augustana
goalmouth. The ball was crossed in, shot, deflected off the goalie and cleared
out only to be herded back into the crowd of green and yellow. It was like a
game of pinball until finally midfielder Chris Garty took a shot that went just
wide of the goal. Augustana, on the other hand, had much more ease, luck and
success on their side of the field. The same striker ran to a loose ball in the
middle of the field after some sloppy Bison passing. Taking it on the bounce,
he sailed it into the air from 30 yards out toward the Bison goal. Although
keeper Tom Erickson followed it back to the goal, the ball went just over his
outstretched hand and landed impossibly in the extreme upper left corner of the
goal as it kissed the crossbar on the way by. The half ended 30 seconds later
with Augustana up 2–0.
After some tough
halftime talk from Coach Kellen Nesvig,
the Bison came out in the second half with some heat. The real fire started,
however, when stopper Nate Engel fired a low, accurate shot to the bottom left
corner, edging its way just between the post and the hand of the keeper. From
then on, it was like trying to stop a freight train. A few minutes later, NDSU
was awarded a corner kick. Midfielder Fernando Bales sent a high arcing ball
over a crowd of players to the head of forward Tanner Naastad who was waiting
on the other side. His header sent the ball back across the goalmouth, and into
the side of the net. The game was tied up with more than half of the second
half to play.
The final goal of
the game came from NDSU midfielder Will Schoen, when he received the ball close
to the opposing goal. He saw a large patch of daylight, and sent his shot
rocketing past the Augustana keeper, giving him no chance on the play. In the
closing minutes, Augustana struggled to fight against the current created by
NDSU’s huge momentum. The few weak shots produced near the end were collected
easily by Erickson. The final whistle blew, and NDSU celebrated their 3–2
comeback win that lifted them to 5-1-0 on the 2008 season.