Men's Soccer holds off MSOE, advances to NACC Semifinals

MEQUON, Wis. – Freshman Gavin Winston showed no nerves in his postseason debut as his two goals helped the Concordia University Wisconsin Men's Soccer team hold off a late MSOE rally for a 3-2 win in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Quarterfinals. The win puts the Falcons in the semifinals of the league tournament for the eighth straight season.

CUW will advance to play second-seeded Dominican University on Tuesday at 1 p.m. The other semifinal matchup will pit No. 6 Edgewood College against No. 1 Benedictine University. The two winners will meet up next Saturday at the highest remaining seed's home field.

The Falcons built a 3-0 lead late in the second half as Winston (Park Forest, Ill.) scored the second of his two goals with 10:52 remaining in the contest. The Raiders would not go away, however, as they scored off a Logan Andryk penalty kick with 3:34 left in the game and got a second goal with 59 seconds remaining from Patrick Gathof. CUW held MSOE off over the final minute to advance to the semifinals.

The Falcons were also playing a man down over the final three-plus minutes Saturday as a CUW defender was given a red card when Michael Skow attempted to score late in the second half. His attempt was headed for the back of the net before the Falcons defender hit the ball out with his hand, resulting in the red card and ejection. Andryk converted the PK and MSOE took advantage of the extra man, scoring once more in towards the end of play.

The first 80 minutes of action were all CUW as Winston scored twice, one in each half and junior Diego Campos (Milwaukee, Wis.) added a goal for the three-goal lead. Winston started the scoring at the 27:39 mark, launching a shot from just outside the 18-yard box in the upper left corner of the goal. Campos took a page out of Winston's book with his goal, fitting it in the upper right corner off a pass from sophomore Mark Samuel (Brookfield, Wis.).

The Campos goal was scored 17:55 left in the match and Winston's final tally came at the 79:08 mark off an assist from Adrian Vargas (Mequon, Wis.). It appeared at the time Winston's goal was just icing on the cake, but it turned out to be the game-winner after the two late Raider goals.

Sophomore Alec Brew (Appleton, Wis.) improved his record to 5-1-1 as he made nine saves to help advance the Falcons in the NACC Tournament. Garrett Farin stopped three shots for the Raiders as MSOE outshot the Falcons, 17-13. Andryk, the NACC's leading goal scorer, led all players with nine shots.

Live stats and video links for the semifinal match against Dominican can be found at CUWFalcons.com. The live coverage will be courtesy of the DU Sports Information department.