NPSL Round Up: Week 7
Our survey said…
Which reminds me… with regards to your own club. Do you prefer
— Northern Lights Football (@Lights_Football) June 16, 2023
This Week
Friday
Sunflower State FC 2-1 Ehtar Belleville
Blake Barrick opened the scoring for Sunflower just before half time, finishing off a defense splitting pass from midfield by Cooper Forcellini. Colin Innes blasted home a free kick from just outside the penalty area in the fifty-eighth minute to make it 2-0. Ehtar halved the deficit in the eighty-fifth minute, Wyatt Fowler capitalizing on the goalkeeper parrying the ball right back into their path.
Cleveland SC 4-3 Akron City FC
The home side went up 1-0 in the twelfth minute, on the counter attack. A possible foul throw by Cleveland was instead ruled a re-throw by the referee and it was that re-throw which flew into the area to Julian Pellegrini, whose pass was deflected by the goalie into the path of Thomas Beck. Colin Biros equalized in the twenty-fifth minute, driving across the top of the area from the right before letting fly. Beck made it 2-1 in the thirty-fourth minute, hammering the ball home at the top of the penalty area. Nathan Childress equalized again for Akron City in the thirty-seventh minute, another firmly hit shot from the apex of the area. In the forty-first minute, the visitors took the lead with another shot from the same range – Ryan Kingsford with the finish.
Admir Suljevic whipped a ball into the box from the left and Keegan Dawson equalized in the fifty-first minute. Bojan Kolevski put Cleveland into the lead in the seventy-eighth minute as he fought his way through Akron defenders and poked the ball home from close range. Akron pushed everyone forward in search of the final equalizer but it did not come.
Saturday
Carpathia FC 3-5 Erie Commodores
The visitors scored within the opening ninety seconds through an own goal. They doubled their lead through Jacob Hancock, volleying a shot from close in, only five minutes in. Carpathia made it 2-1 in the ninth minute off a Francesco Mazzei counter attack down the left wing. The Commodores stretched their lead again in the 17th minute, Hancock powering down the left before turning inside the right back and slotting the ball high into the net. It was 3-2 in the twentieth minute as Ryan Williams calmly finished a pass from the left wing. In the twenty-seventh minute, it was 4-2 as Joseph Gasper went on a solo counter down the right wing and finished it himself. Mazzei made it 4-3 in the fifty-sixth minute but Kaito Ueki made it 5-3 in the sixty-second minute.
Dakota Fusion 5-4 Sioux Falls Thunder
Shoki Yoshida put Fusion ahead in the 15th minute, connecting on a long clearance up field before putting the ball under the onrushing goalkeeper. Thunder equalized only five minutes later through Marcus Horwood’s bullet header from close range, off a right wing cross. Sioux Falls went ahead in the forty-first minute when Fusion only partially cleared an attempted shot inside the penalty area, the deflection was rifled home by Horwood. The Midwest region’s leading goalscorer Yu Tsukanome levelled matters only three minutes later on a counter attack.
Yoshida scored his second goal in the forty-ninth minute to put Fusion ahead, blasting in from the left side of the penalty area. Callum Bryan provided the South Dakotans’ third goal of the game, hammering the ball home after an initial save. Tsukanome missed an easy chance in the eightieth minute to re-establish the Fusion lead, as a shot was parried right into his path but he put the shot high. Two minutes later, however, Fusion did take the lead as a neat 1-2 led Edward Burgos to the heart of the box. Thunder went right back up field and equalized through Eric Beltran. Fusion then returned the favor, Mate Lengel getting the fifth goal.
Milwaukee Torrent 2-0 Iowa Raptors
A goal in each half was enough for Torrent to claim all three points. Paco Piscaglia scored the opener for Torrent in the fourth minute, tipping home a Max Ludwig worm-burner of a free kick. Lucas Nesthus made it two in the sixty-third minute, converting off a Khedive Miguel Konde Gwo pass with the defense hopelessly out of position.
Joy Athletic Club 1-3 Duluth FC
Duluth went ahead through Colin O’Mahony in the fifth minute but Joy equalized from the penalty spot via Zinedine Kroeten in the thirty-fifth minute. Liam Pritchard re-established the BlueGreen lead in the thirty-ninth minute.
Tyler Limmer scored the third Duluth goal, in the seventy-second minute. Five minutes later, the home team were reduced to ten men as David Riera was sent off for a second bookable offense, the first having been unsportsmanlike behavior.
Med City FC 1-1 Minnesota TwinStars
TwinStars went into the lead in the fifty-fourth minute through Eric Rosas-Rosas, with close control in the box after a cross from the left. Henry Tolbert was the finisher after a swift counter attack down the left for Med City’s equalizer in the eighty-fifth minute.
Sunday
Ehtar Belleville 0-0 Club Atletico St Louis
The second Gateway Derby went scoreless, despite plenty of action. Club Atletico had the best chance, with a free kick on the edge of the area tipped wide by Jose Ogaz.
The opening salvo in this game was struck with four minutes on the clock, when an Akron City snap shot forced an acrobatic tipping of the ball over the crossbar. From this small opening, the visitors forced a sustained few minutes of attacking one way, culminating in a goal by Daniel Baumgartner from a direct ball into the box in the ninth minute. Baumgartner got his second of the match in the twelfth minute, heading a cross from the right back across goal. He had a chance for his hat trick in the fifteenth minute but his shot went just over the crossbar. Just before the nineteenth minute, another direct ball up the center of the Columbus defense led to Jaden Wright slotting the ball home through the keeper’s legs for 3-0. In the twenty-fifth minute, Columbus were awarded a penalty kick, although the offense was unclear. Damani Camara scored their first goal in six games.
Baumgartner again had a chance for his third in the seventieth minute but Raymel Bowden in the Columbus net stuck out a hand and denied his point blank header. Columbus’s best chance in the second came from Ridwan Abdi, but Cameron Victor in the Akron net shut it down.
Steel City FC 3-2 Cleveland SC
Chris Cvecko put the visitors on top early, a close range opportunity after the ball was turned around the back of the Steel City defense by Cleveland. Tate Mohney equalized off a driven Anthony DiFalco cross from the right with the last kick of the first half.
Five minutes into the second half, Justin Kopay wound his way across the top of the penalty area before sliding the ball to DiFalco who uncorked a curler past the goalkeeper to put Steel City ahead. They were only ahead for six minutes after a handball by a Cleveland player was adjudged to have happened just outside the penalty area. Marcus Pereira made the distinction academic as he drove a free kick off the underside of the wall and in at the far post. The final twist came only five minutes later, a cross-field pass by Mohney led to a shot by Copay and the rebound was finished by Ryan Landry. A flurry of late attacks from Cleveland foundered on the rocks of a sturdy Steel City defense.
Wednesday
Dakota Fusion v Aris
Yu Tsukanome opened the scoring for the home team in the fourth minute of play, connecting on a long ball down the right to blast the ball past Aris’s Jacob Havlik from the edge of the area. That goal gives the Japanese player 11 goals from 9 games. A ball from the right was met by Herman Fernandez Ortega at the near post to equalize in the twenty-third minute. Rashaad Ogun made it 2-1 only two minutes later as a goalmouth scramble resulted in a header for Fusion to go back ahead.
Cai Pritchard doubled the lead for Fusion in the fifty-second minute, slotting home a Brandon Gasper pass from the edge of the area – moments after he had joined the game as a substitute. Tsukanome hammered a free kick from twenty yards out but Havlik was equal to it.
Sioux Falls Thunder 6-1 Joy Athletic Club
Sioux Falls took the lead in the twentieth minute after a promising attack was cut short by a foul in the penalty area. The PK was converted by Marcus Horwood , hard to the keeper’s right. In the thirty-fifth minute, Joy equalized when a long ball upfield was misjudged by the Sioux Falls center backs and Denilson Ramos ran past them, to make it 1-1.
Thunder went back ahead in the fifty-first minute, a recycled ball from a partially cleared corner was slotted home from within the six yard box by Jack Crombie. A long ball down the middle in the fifty-ninth minute saw Crombie round the right back and slot the ball calmly home for his second. In the seventy-first minute, a bullet header by Trace Dobson from a raking ball from the right wing made it 4-1. Crombie set on a dribbling run across the left wing before sliding home the fifth goal, and his hat trick, in the seventy-eighth minute. A pass from the left, flicked into the area was finished off by Eric Beltran in the eighty-seventh minute.
Schedule note: Duluth FC’s match with Med City FC was postponed due to bad air quality in Rochester, MN. The postponement could make life interesting for Med City and Dakota Fusion, who both have to face the Duluth buzzsaw before they can secure their playoff seed.
Playoff Projection – as of 6/30. (# = National points-per-game ranking)
North
#1 Duluth FC v #60 Minnesota TwinStars
#21 Dakota Fusion v #28 Med City FC
Great Lakes
#11 Michigan Rangers v #33 Cleveland SC
Winner plays #5 Steel City FC
Heartland
#19 Tulsa Athletic v #55 Demize NPSL
#25 OKC 1889 v #41 Kansas City Sol
Gateway
#10 Des Moines United v #35 FC Milwaukee Torrent
Coming Up
Tonight
Cleveland SC v Erie Commodores – 7pm ET
FC Columbus v Carpathia FC – 7:15pm ET
Saturday
Ehtar Belleville v Milwaukee Torrent – 6pm CT
Steel City v Michigan Rangers – 6pm ET
Sunflower State FC v Iowa Raptors – 6pm CT
Dakota Fusion v Joy – 7pm CT
Sunday
Akron City FC v Carpathia FC – 6pm ET
Club Atletico St Louis v Milwaukee Torrent – 6pm CT
Erie Commodores v FC Columbus – 7pm ET
Med City FC v Duluth FC – 7pm
Wednesday
Med City FC v Sioux Falls Thunder – 7pm CT
Minnesota TwinStars v Aris – 7pm CT
Sunflower State FC v Des Moines United – 7pm CT
Friday 7/7
Carpathia FC v FC Columbus – 7pm ET
Cleveland SC v Steel City FC – 7pm ET
Erie Commodores v Michigan Rangers – 7pm ET
Saturday
Sunflower State FC v Milwaukee Torrent – 6pm CT
Duluth FC v Dakota Fusion – 7pm CT
Minnesota TwinStars v Joy Athletic – 7pm CT
Sioux Falls Thunder v Aris – 7pm CT