CHICAGO, Ill. -- The Vikings were back in action as the North Park's Men's Soccer team kicked off their season by hosting the Tigers of DePauw University. The two teams played to an aggressive 0-0 draw as the Holgmren Athletic Complex was scoreless on Friday night.
The start of the first half was dominated by North Park in terms of time of possession. However, it was DePauw tallying more shots and possessing the ball heavily towards the end of the half. The Tigers notched double the number of shots with 6 to the Vikings' 3 and had 3 corner kick opportunities to the Vikings' 1. DePauw found that 3 of those 6 shots were on goal but were aptly saved by sophomore goalkeeper Ludvig Almborg in his first career start. The 3 shots from North Park came from graduate student defender Christian Vaaland, junior defender Hugo Neborg, and freshman midfielder Alexander Gahm. The match was a stalemate heading into halftime, 0-0.
The second half was more of the same as the Tigers and Vikings traded shots to no avail. The time of possession was more evenly split with the number of shots between the two teams as the Tigers attempted 7 shots with 4 on goal and the Vikings racked up 6 shots with 2 on goal. 3 corner kicks were attempted by each team in the second half, with the chippy match continuing to be competitive up and down the field.
Viking goalkeeper Ludvig Almborg had a strong outing as he saved 5 of the Tigers' shots on goal, punching out most of them. With North Park's offense being more aggressive in the second half, players like sophomore midfielders Vidar Rydell and Mathias Soerum, along with graduate student forward Jostein Blindheim and junior defender Teo Helm got shots off but only two on goal, as previously mentioned. Rydell tallied 2 shots in the second half with 1 being on goal and Soerum's only shot of the game was also on goal. This one would end scoreless, as the Vikings begin their season 0-0-1.
North Park (0-0-1) travels to Lisle, Illinois on Sunday, September 1, for a 5:00 PM match with the Benedictine Eagles.
