NDSU at South Dakota State University – October 18, 2008

The Bison traveled to Brookings on Saturday to the typically windy SDSU field. They knew one thing coming into the weekend: two wins equals a Conference Championship. They started off with the wind at their backs. Play went to and fro, with possession edging toward the Bison, although the Jackrabbits did have some decently crafted attacks. The Bison’s first goal came from forward Rob Choiniere. As SDSU passed the ball around in the backfield, they miscommunicated and the ball wandered loose near their goalie. Choiniere saw the opportunity, collected the ball, took a touch around the keeper and calmly struck it into the goal for a 1-0 lead.

The biggest scare of the game came when an SDSU forward received a pass at the top of the penalty box and dribbled it at full sprint toward the goal. He was met by keeper Tom Erickson as he shot. The ball bounced off Erickson’s knee, hit sweeper Justin Sipma in the chin, and almost rolled across the goal line before Sipma cleared it out of danger.

The Bison went into halftime thinking that they had basically lost the half, because even though they were up by a goal, they would now have to face the stiff South Dakota wind. It proved inconsequential, however, as NDSU put on a beautiful showing of possessive soccer, passing the ball all over the pitch with polished finesse. They were rewarded with a goal when Tanner Naastad passed a perfect ball off to fellow forward Brian Chapman who smacked it home. This demoralized the SDSU team who were beginning to get desperate. The knockout punch was delivered shortly afterword when Naastad found himself on a breakaway behind the SDSU defense. He took a few touches, looked up at the keeper, and passed it to the left side for the third goal of the game. That was the story for the rest of the game as the Bison only had to dodge a few free kicks and corners to put up a shutout in the convincing 3 – 0 win. The victory improved the Bison to 8-1-2 on the season while SDSU fell to 4-6-0.