If you’re a soccer fan and missed the other nights doubleheader between the men’s and women’s programs of Briar Cliff University and Morningside College then you missed out a one heck of a show. It was a very unusual showing between the two teams as they had a certain class step up big time in many different ways.
The two cross town college rivals battle in every aspect of the game from recruiting the top prospects to heads up matches on the pitch. Their most recent battle, however, came down to who would showcase the top scorers and those scorers just happened to have been freshman.
Freshman stole the show in the men’s matchup accounting for every point scored in the 2-1 Mustang win. Morningside Colleges Paul Quildies scored his first goal of his college career assisted by Tom Karshuening in the 40th minute and taking the 1-0 lead into halftime. Briar Cliff would respond quickly into the second half with a goal from Christopher Nkoghe assisted by Prichard Sibanda. Nkoghe’s goal was his 18th of the season and held up until the 82nd minute when Juan Pablo Jochems assisted Tom Karchuening’s 6th goal of the season to put the game away for the 2-1 Mustang win. Morningside improves their GPAC record to 4-2-1 (9-4-1 overall) and Briar Cliff drops to 3-4 in the GPAC and 6-7 overall.
In the women’s matchup it was another solid freshman performance, however, the attention was more directed towards the shutout that the Mustangs posted. In a 4-0 performance against Briar Cliff, Morningside improved their GPAC record at 7-1 and 11-3-1 overall. Briar Cliff drops to 3-4-1 in GPAC and 6-7-1 overall. Scoring for the Mustangs started off quickly with freshman Merle Bublitz ninth goal of the season in the 3rd minute of play. She was assisted by Siouxland native and scoring leader Amy Samuelson, 15 goals this season, who scored two second half goals assisted by Amy Grause and Whitney Ferguson both juniors. Freshman Chole Wetzbarger also put up a goal against the Chargers and she was assisted by both Merle Bublitz and Amy Grause. Amy Grause was just recently named the GPAC Women’s Soccer Offensive Player of the Week.
There was definitely a lot of soccer excitement watching these teams compete and there will be plenty of top notch soccer to watch here in Siouxland between these two programs.
The Mustangs have their final home game of the season against Doane today starting with the women at 5pm followed by the men at 7pm. Briar Cliff will host Doane on Halloween for their final home game of the season at 5pm and 7pm. Head out there and support your local Siouxland Athletes.
