NPSL Round Up: Week 3
Tuesday
Duluth FC 1-0 Minnesota Blizzard FC
When you aren’t destroying teams, just find a way to win. A draw is possible in this game we love, but that was not to be for the visitors, who conceded a fatal late free kick, 20 yards out on the right wing.
Duluth FC had a couple of half chances in the opening ten minutes but the Blizzard were steadfast in their defense. The Blizzard’s first chances came shortly after back to back corners resulted in an unmarked shot from the top of the box, wide. Luis Vergara shot high from a corner in the 19th minute for Duluth, and the BlueGreens saw a goal disallowed for offside in the 25th. The home side’s first corner took 27 minutes to arrive, and it resulted in a counter for Blizzard, albeit ended by a Mark Donaldson interception. Adrian Mejia nearly broke through for the hosts in the waning moments of the first half but the shot went wide. Blizzard had 5 corners in the opening 45 but could not threaten the goal.
Devan DiGrado (a St. Thomas graduate) provided the first shot in anger from the Blizzard in the second half, but it was blocked before it could make the box. Duluth had their own shots around the hour mark. Donaldson had the closest chance, side footed just wide from the edge of the Blizzard area in the 62nd minute. Bryant + Stratton’s Cian McGoey (out of Limerick, Ireland) whipped the ball across the six yard box two minutes later for Blizzard, but it remained tied. The visitors’ Evan Moreno (a Northern Arizona grad) received a red card, which turned yellow after consultation with the assistant referee in the 69th minute.
The rule (Law 12) governing denial of a goalscoring opportunity is convoluted, so I’m going to quote it:
Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offender is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.), the offending player must be sent off.
João Magalhaes, who was fouled, saw his PK saved by Evan Siefken (formerly of St Johns and Minneapolis City) . The Mineiro Felipe Oliveira (who plays at Wisconsin-Superior) saw his shot blocked at point blank range in the 81st minute by Siefken.
Stoppage time degenerated into a sequence of fouls by Blizzard, the last of which was a killer for the visitors. The ball was whipped all the way from the right wing over to the left, then headed back across the penalty area and tapped into the goal by the Quiteño[Teddy Miranda (William Carey University) from inside the 6-yard box in the 6th minute of second-half stoppage time.
Friday
Sioux Falls Thunder 2-4 Joy AC
So what’s new for Joy Athletic? Philip Caputo (a local product, and original St. Cloud State Husky) scored a first half hat trick, totaling 7 in his last two games. The first came courtesy of a ball into the left channel, expertly controlled and slotted across the keeper into the far side netting in the 15th minute. The second was a penalty kick fifteen minutes later. Caputo sealed his hatty with a lung busting run down the left wing, again finished into the far side netting.
The Goats kept pushing forward, but it would be the 60th minute before their fourth, a 25 yard free kick from Shakopee, MN’s Jessie Juarez – who transferred into Hamline from Augsburg and has previously played for Duluth FC. The ball whipped over the wall and past the keeper at full stretch into the side netting.
Thunder scored their first after a left wing corner pinballed around and was poked home by local product and Gustavus Adolphus Gustie Tallen Dobson in the 70th minute. 3 minutes later, a counter attack made it 4-2 through the Canary Islander Aran Hernández Vivar, currently attending Western Iowa Tech. Unfortunately for the crowd at Bob Young Field, there would be no rousing rally this time.
Saturday
Sioux Falls Thunder 2-1 Minnesota Blizzard
It didn’t take the Thunder long to break into this game, Hooper hammered the ball into the roof of the Blizzard net from the top of the penalty area with only 7 minutes on the clock, after the visitors failed to scramble the ball clear. However, a free kick on the right side in the 15th minute hit the wall and Devan DiGrado hammered home the rebound to equalize from close to 20 yards out.
2 mins into the 2nd half, the home side reasserted control. A burst down the left wing by local product Nick North, who attends SD School of Mines, culminated in an easy finish for Aran Hernández Vivar inside the six yard box. A draw might have been a fairer result, but 8 mins of stoppage did not yield a game changing goal and the home team secured their second win of the season.
Siouxland United 5-0 Joy AC
It took half an hour for a side to break the deadlock in Sioux City, and it was the Carioca product of Lewis and Clark Community College, João Lutz beating the defense down the middle to put Siouxland United ahead. Two minutes after half-time, Takumi Sato slid in a second at short range from a right wing cross. It was 3-0 in the 63rd minute, as Outlaw center back and St. Bonaventure player Xavier Davidson connected on a right wing corner. The game was iced in the 77th minute, when the Ontarian Christian Piewe Tientcheu (who goes to school at West Virginia Tech) tapped in on a counter-attack. A fifth goal was scored in the 86th minute on the counter again by Keitatsu Yoshida (From Osaka, Japan and currently lacing them up for Cowley College). Remarkably, Siouxland United’s Yotaro Furutani (from Tokyo, via Munroe University) received a second yellow card in second half stoppage for a late challenge.
Duluth FC 3-1 Iowa Demon Hawks
In the 28th minute, Duluth took the lead after a header from Alejandro Ruiz Garcia squirmed past the Demon Hawks’ keeper. A 37th minute penalty kick put the BlueGreens up two at half time. Iowa’s sole goal came in the 47th minute through Saiheed Jah (Moline, IL via Drake). Bayerische Tobias Gerber (NE Community College) scored the third home goal in the 55th minute.
Sunday
Siouxland United 4-1 Minnesota Blizzard
The week’s last action came in less than favorable weather conditions, high 80 degree heat and wildfire smoke triggering hydration protocols. It took the Outlaws of Siouxland United just 15 seconds after resumption from one of those hydration breaks to score the first goal via Keitatsu Yoshida. Daniel Contreras Portorreal doubled the lead. Christian Piewe Tientcheu made it 3-0 and Yoshida scored his second and SUX’s fourth in the 71st minute. Carter Hermanson drifted a free kick in, and Ryan DeBois placed it past Bradley Ironside for Blizzard’s only tally of the game in the 85th minute but a rally was not forthcoming. After starting their season with two losses, Siouxland United are now 2-2 and sit second, three points behind Duluth but with a game in hand and the two sides meeting next Saturday at Bishop Heelan in Sioux City.