Box Score

Mike Herbst and North Park were looking for that perfect moment to strike late in the second half of Wednesday night's CCIW semifinal men's soccer match with Carthage College.

The Vikings already had two key opportunities go by the wayside, but Herbst was going to make sure the NP faithful and “Foster's Finest” weren't going home empty-handed on Halloween night.

Which is why the sophomore midfielder came up big in the clutch as he buried what turned out to be the game-winner in the 85th minute off an assist from Fredrik Greiff to give the Vikings 3-2 win over the Red Men, sending them to their third-straight CCIW title match and knocking out last year's tournament champions.

Herbst's fourth goal of the season found the top right corner of the net after Greiff passed the ball back to him at the top of the box. It was his second game-winning goal this season and it gave NP their second victory over Carthage in the last two weeks.

Carthage opened the scoring in the sixth minute on a goal from Jordan Innis unassisted, but North Park returned the favor in the 19th minute when Jakob Aronsson booted his fifth goal of the year off a corner kick from Herbst. A Jonas Pettersson tally, his team-leading 15th of the year, gave NP a 2-1 advantage at halftime, but Carthage came back to tie the score at 2-2 in the 65th minute when Mike Heika scored on a 40-yard free kick.

North Park edged Carthage in shots (14-12) and had a 9-8 margin in shots on goal. Senior keeper Tim Ahlberg made six saves in the complete-game effort as he improved his record to 11-1-4.

The Vikings (12-2-4) will now face Wheaton College at Wheaton for the CCIW tournament championship at 7 p.m. Saturday for a chance at earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament. North Park owns a 3-0 record against Wheaton in the conference title match, with their last victory a 3-2 overtime win against the Thunder in 2010.