North Central

The men's team bounced back from a string of bad defeats to defeat North Central College from Naperville, IL. We have had some wild matches with this team over the past few years. Several years ago, before I was the coach and during a game in Naperville, Maranatha scored four goals in the first half and then NCC scored three goals in the second half with MBBC barely holding on for the victory. I think Greg Wright scored all of the MBBC goals. I believe that we also played a match against this team in which three penalty kicks were called. Maybe if Ben or Greg Wright happen across this blog they can help out my memory. In 2004 we defeated NCC at home in a 2-1 game where NCC dominated, but couldn't put the ball in the net. NCC's Nick Aguilar unleashed shot after shot that Andrew Swift barely deflected each time. We had played a women's match that afternoon, so the game was started late. It was so dark that I wasn't sure if Swifty could even see the ball. In 2005, NCC won down in Naperville in a hard fought contest. Stephen Roby scored on a free kick from almost 40 yds and hit the post on another. NCC's second goal of the contest was one of the hardest hit balls that I have ever seen.
Coming into the 2006 match, both teams had been struggling lately. NCC scored first on a own goal, the ball was spinning a great deal and the wind also affected it's flight. I don't think the NCC player was even shooting. We scored on a nice hustle (does he score any other way?) goal by Mark Scally to even the score at half-time 1-1. I thought we would end up with another 2-1 game when Mike Knepp scored with a nice shot from the righ side of the goal. Unfortunately, NCC scored again less than a minute later. This game was not over, however as the men increased the pressure and Joel Smith was able to find the net twice in the last 20 minutes.
Overall, I was very happy just to get the win and to score a few goals. Our attack was much stronger than it had been of late and our defensive intensity was greatly improved. I am a little concerned with our attacking and defensive shape, but we have a couple of days to work on it. We resume conference play on Saturday against Lakeland College. - C

MSOE

Saturday was a great day for soccer at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee. The women played first at 1 pm and won a hard fought victory. Emily Kutz scored the only goal of the contest on a great hustle play where she stole the ball up front and then beat the keeper. The main story of this game was our defensive effort. Jenny Harley, Shasta Mikolowski, Angela Fenstermacher, Deborah Hale, Carrie Rauba, and Holly Meissner all played major minutes in the back to help goal keeper Autumn Byers tally her second straight shutout. Our midfield also played a large role in effort with Abby Kalschuer winning almost every loose ball in the middle third during the second half. All this, on a day when we were without the services of senior captain Sarah Beardslee who is planning to be back in action on Thursday against Mount Mary. We are now 3-3 on the season, 1-1 in conference and Angela Fenstermacher was named the player of the week in the Northern Athletics Conference

http://www.northernathleticsconf.com/releases/2006_09/20060919a.html

The men did not fare so well as we lost to MSOE 5-1. We consistently give up an early goal and we are struggling to find the answer to that problem. Fortunately we are only 0-1 in conference and with 9 conference games remaining, we have a great opportunity to turn things around. - C

Benedictine

The ladies came into the match with Benedictine on a 3 game losing streak - furthermore a streak where we had lost every game by one goal. Unfortunately the match had to be played off-campus at Brandt-Quirk Park about a mile from Maranatha, but we made the best of it. We controlled most of the game, but we are still having trouble getting the ball in the net. Losing Sarah Beardslee probably had something to do with that. Our team is really starting to possess the ball well. Some of our freshmen - Emily Dow and Emily Kutz are learning the game very quickly. Karen Beardslee has also developed into an outstanding passer. Of course, Angela Fenstermacher had another great game, shutting down Benedictine's best player and leading the defense to a conference shut-out. Melissa Nichols had a great performance at center mid, putting great shots on goal, but the Benedictine keeper did a very nice job to hold us to only two goals. Final score 2-0. - C

Dominican University

This was the first conference match of the season for both teams. Conference matches are like the playoffs. The tension is greater and typically both teams play their best matches with the conference record on the line.
The men's match began at 2 pm and was a little complicated by our missing an exit on the way down. Turning the bus around while traveling the Illinois Tollway is not an easy thing. . .Dominican came into the game as the 14th ranked team in NCAA III http://nscaa.com/seniorRes.php?it=152. There are over 400 teams in NCAA III. We thought we had a good gameplan in place as we entered the match, but Dominican backed up their ranking quickly. At half-time we changed our tactics and had a little more success, however, the score was still a lopsided 8-0. I would have to check to make certain, but I think it is the worst loss by the men's squad since I have been coaching. Dan Kaminiski actually had a good game in the net. He made several very nice saves in poor conditions. Andrew Solarek, Mike Knepp and Brett Hollenbeck also played well. We are certain that we can play better against teams of this caliber and we are looking forward to MSOE on Saturday.
The ladies gave a good account of themselves yesterday, holding the top goal scorer in NCAA III in 2005 to one goal on the afternoon. Unfortunately that goal was the difference in the match. We had several good opportunities to get on the board, including a breakaway in the first half, but couldn't convert. This is our third one-goal loss in a row. This weekend we play a conference match on Friday night against Benedictine and a non-conference match against MSOE on Saturday.

North Central

This game has been a great match-up for our ladies for the past five years. Our game with North Central College are always close - unfortunately we have ended up on the losing end more often than we would like. NCC is from the tough CCIW conference in Illinois that includes Wheaton, Elmhurst, Illinois Wesleyan and a number of other schools that are powerhouses in NCAA III women's soccer. Here are our all-time scores against NCC:
2002 L 0-2
2003 L 0-1
2004 W 2-1 2OT
2005 L 0-1
2006 L 1-2 1OT
This year was no different. NCC scored early on a shot to the "upper 90", but we quickly settled in and played well. Julie Muse had a great chance on a break-away, but the NCC keeper made a nice 1v1 save on the ground. Late in the second half, Sarah Beardslee who has always been one of our greatest players under pressure, took a header from Emily Dow and stuck it in the net to even the score at 1-1. We then went to OT. The game was fairly even at this point, but I thought that our attack was stronger than theirs. Unfortunately, we were unable to score early and we committed a foul in the box that led to a penatly kick that ended the game - a tough way to lose a close match. Overall, I was pleased with the level of effort and intensity that the ladies played with. We definitely have some work to do in the area of possession. - C