The MNU Men's Soccer team capped off an up-and-down weekend this afternoon with a 6-2 victory over #16 nationally ranked Oklahoma Baptist. The win comes on the heels of Friday evening loss to Midland University by a score of 3-2, a game in which the visiting team scored in the final 2 minutes to steal the result.
In Friday's contest the MNU team never got into a rhythm in the game and Midland University came from behind on two different occasions before they won the game at the end. The first goal was scored by Taylor Esparza from a Cam Cundiff assist in the first half, but Midland came back to tie the game just a few minutes later. Just before the half Trent Remmich scored his 10th goal of the season off of a Gyer Vierthaler assist to go into halftime with a 2-1 lead. The lead was short-lived as just seconds into the second half the visiting Warriors tied the game at two. With the final goal at the 88 minute mark the Pioneers were forced to swallow a tough loss.
On Saturday against nationally ranked OBU the men looked like a different team.
With both teams coming off of a Friday loss the game took on an edge from the opening whistle.
OBU missed two early chances to take the lead and then the Pioneers settled down and began to create good chances of their own.
At the 30 minute mark of the first half,
Trent Remmich scored the first of his 3 off of an assist from MNU's goalkeeper Chris Eriksson.
Just 5 minutes later, MNU added to their lead with Remmich scoring from a
Kalev Saarna assist.
The first half ended with MNU leading 2-0.
In the second half, the game got very interesting. First, OBU scored an own goal (click to view) when their goalkeeper punted the ball off of their defender's head and it ricocheted back into the net. This made the score 3-0 and proved to be pivotal as the Bison's scored a PK and then a set piece goal within a 3 minute span to cut the MNU lead to 3-2. The Pioneers responded in fine fashion with a set piece goal of their own by Aurelien Norest just 1 minute and 45 seconds later. The clock moved just 7 more minutes before, in a 90 second period, MNU scored the last of their 6 goals to put the game away. Trent Remmich completed his hat trick off of a set piece served in by Aurelien Norest and then Chris Matsch scored his first goal of the season from a nice combination play. Cam Cundiff and Remmich got the assists on the play. With MNU now safely in the lead by a 6-2 score the game finished out without further incident.
MNU now moves their season record to 5-3. Their next game at home on Wednesday, September 21 against #8-ranked Kansas Wesleyan at 5:00.
