Men’s soccer wins an aggressive season opener
Photo description: Senior Braden Spath throws the ball back into play for Concordia
Photo credit: Madeline Peters
Madeline Peters
Sports Editor
The Concordia men’s soccer team beat the Graceland University Yellowjackets 2-1 Saturday evening in their first game of the season.
The season opener for the men’s team went fantastically against the physical Yellowjackets. Graceland managed to sneak a goal in the second minute, but junior Carter Hinman kicked an equalizing goal, making the score 1-1. The two teams were unable to tip the scales before the end of the first half.
In the 58th minute, senior Victor Meneses was fouled and awarded a penalty kick. He shot the ball right past the goalkeeper into the back of the net and gave Concordia the advantage and the game.
The game was full of fouls. There were seven yellow cards awarded: four to Concordia and three to Graceland. There was also a red card shown to Graceland’s Manny Zambrano.
Coach Jason Weides knew the game was going to be an uphill battle, saying, “We knew it was going to be a challenge. Graceland is in one of the best conferences, and [is] a competitive team… It was a game that was pretty tight… it’s never pretty early in the season… but we did just enough and found a way to grind it out, cause we’re going to find ourselves in ‘grind-it-out’ games.”
The men’s soccer team starts their season as Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament champions. Though the men did not make it far in the national tournament, the hope that the Bulldogs can defend their GPAC title is palpable.
Weides explained, “There’s a lot of optimism and excitement. We have big targets on our back and big expectations internally for ourselves. It’s about us embracing those challenges and being willing to know that the path may not be straight where we want to go, but we gotta find a way to get there nonetheless.”
The men’s team’s next game is against York University on Aug. 30 at 5:30 p.m. in Bulldog Stadium, with the women’s game to follow at 8 p.m.
