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Concordia junior Riley McGlynn heads the ball toward the St. Thomas goal after a shot from Philip Bruckbauer hit the crossbar during the Cobbers' 1-0 win on Saturday. |
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Gameday Scoreboard:
Game Stats: Concordia vs. St. Thomas Box Score - Now Online! Opponent's Website: St. Thomas Men's Soccer Gameday Rewind: Game Stats: Concordia vs. St. Thomas Box Score - Now Online! Picture Gallery : Concordia vs. St. Thomas Picture Gallery - Now Online! Gameday Game Recap: MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/16/10)--The seven Concordia seniors used their last regular-season home game to move within one step of earning their first-ever MIAC playoff berth. The Cobbers got a goal from Riley McGlynn in the 24th minute and then used a resilient defense to blank St. Thomas 1-0. The win pushes the Cobbers' unbeaten streak to nine games and moves them into a tie for first place in the league standings. Concordia is now 11-3-1 in all games and 6-2-1 in the MIAC. CC has one conference game remaining and will have to wait for two weeks to find out the ramifications that their game at St. John's will carry. The game between Concordia and St. Thomas was a tale of a strong end-to-end wind and two different offensive schemes. The Cobbers tried to build the attack through the middle of the field and get around the corner of the defense on the wing while the Tommies were content to try and put the ball on the CC backline and take advantage of 50-50 situations. UST had chances early and came away with two corner kicks and three shots in the first five minutes. Concordia weathered the initial storm and then started to create chances from wing players Alex Dahl and Philip Bruckbauer. Bruckbauer hit the crossbar on a wicked one-time volley in the 16th minute. He had three clear chances in a span of 13:00 after continually beating his defender on the wing. After missing on his first four shots of the game, McGlynn finally put the Cobbers ahead 1-0 in the 24th minute. He collected a pass from Marco Riboli and hammered a shot on the run from 20 yards out that deflected off the covering defenders leg and the resulting topspin carried the ball over the St. Thomas goalie and underneath the crossbar. The play was started by CC defender Ethan Vogel who made a precision entry pass to Riboli in the midfield. The goal at 23:50 was McGlynn's 12th of the season and moved his league-leading point total to 34. That total is the second highest single-season mark in school history and surpasses the 33 points put up by Mike Hashbager in 1993 and duplicated by his brother Todd in 1997. McGlynn is now nine points away from breaking the program record of 42 set by Hall of Famer Peter Curry in 1994. The Cobbers continued to pepper the Tommie goal in the final 20 minutes and came close on a pair of occasions but weren't able to come up with an insurance goal. The second half was a different story as St. Thomas went against the wind and stepped up their offensive pressure. Concordia went back-and-forth for the first 25:00 but then dropped into a defensive posture for the final 20:00. The Cobbers continually cleared the ball from their penalty area and tried to force the UST attack to go through several defenders to get to the net. The best chance for St. Thomas came in the 78th minute when Tommy Jungwirth screamed a long-range shot that was dipping under the crossbar after it went past CC goalie Peter Runquist. Runquist then came up with the save of the game as he dove backwards and was just able to get a hand on the shot and turn it over the crossbar. CC then survived a flurry of corner kicks late in the game to preserve their second straight shutout. For the game Concordia outshot 18-9 in total shots and 9-4 in shots on goal. McGlynn had a game-high eight shots. It is the second highest shot total of the season and marks the sixth time in the last eight games he has had at least five shots in a game. Tommie freshman Nick Rapisarda had four shots to lead the UST attack. He made the most of his dangerous runs in the first half. Runquist stopped all four shots he faced and has now posted back-to-back shutouts and lowered his season GAA to 1.68. Alex Benson made eight saves in the game and routinely kick-started the St. Thomas offense by knocking 80-yard punts that ended up inside the CC penalty area. Concordia will now step away from the conference when they head out on their annual mid-semester break trip. The Cobbers will play at Fontbonne on Sunday, Oct. 24 and then square off against No.11-ranked Washington Univ. (Mo.) on Monday, Oct. 25.
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