CHICAGO, Ill. – The North Park men's soccer team is moving on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament after a 4-2 victory over Carleton College Saturday afternoon at the Holmgren Athletic Complex. The Vikings were powered by three goals from Peder Olsen, and a late dagger from Tobias Lunde.
Olsen didn't wait long to break the ice for the Vikings as he received a peachy pass from Angel Barriga that Olsen one-touch blasted into the upper-left corner to go up 1-0 in the 19th minute. Olsen doubled the lead just seven minutes later when Gustav Ericsson fed a through ball to Isak Flo who was unleashed down the left wing and sent a ground cross across the mouth of goal that Olsen mis-hit, but still put enough on it to just leak it over the goal line.
Facing a 2-0 deficit after just 26 minutes, the Knights did not go easily into the night. Owen Flanagan ripped a hard shot that was saved by the Vikings Alfred Sward, but Justin Crawmer was waiting for the rebound and stabbed it in the back of the net to cut the North Park lead in half.
Halftime: North Park 2, Carleton 1
Less than five minutes in to the second half, a scuffle in the box led to an illegal tackle by the Knights and a point to the penalty spot by the center ref. Sitting on a hat trick Olsen powered home a strong PK to inflate NPU's lead back to two.
Carleton still had some punches in them as the Knight's Blake Jones was able to blast a shot into the back of the net in the 58th minute that set the difference back to just one goal. The visitors continued pushing forward as ball after ball was dangerously volleyed in and around Sward's goal. Eventually, the freshman keeper came up with the biggest save of his career in the 70th minute when he stuffed Carleton's leading goal scorer, Marco da Cunha, from point-blank range to keep the Vikings up one.
A brilliant counterattack from NPU finally cemented a win for the hosts when Noel Holm pushed a perfectly weighted through ball to the feet of Tobias Lunde who calmly fired the ball past the Carleton keeper. It was Holm's second assist of the game after he was credited with a hockey assist on Olsen's first goal.
Final: North Park 4, Carleton 2
What's Next?
The Vikings continue their season against No. 3 Washington University-St. Louis on Sunday, November 14th at the Holmgren Athletic Complex. Kick off will be at 1 PM. The Bears defeated UW-Superior by a score of 1-0 in the opening round.
Admission is free with an NPU Student ID.
