Raiders look to rebound for playoffs

It was a tough week for the Northwestern men’s soccer squad, as they dropped games to NAIA powerhouse Hastings, and lost their first home game of the season to Dakota Wesleyan.
NW lost a heartbreaking 1-0 match Wednesday night to Dakota Wesleyan. With the win, Dakota Wesleyan moves ahead of NW, Doane and Concordia to jump into second place in the GPAC with a 6-3 conference record. NW is now tied for fifth place with Midland.
“We just didn’t play well enough to win,” said sophomore Justin Lehman. “We let Dakota Wesleyan into the game. We didn’t prove that we were a better team.”
Despite outshooting and outpossessing Dakota Wesleyan, NW couldn’t put the ball in the net. After a scoreless first half, Dakota Wesleyan relied on their effective counter-attack to score a goal in the 56th minute.
“Dakota Wesleyan is a very  good team,” said junior Brandon Hammock. “They defend with all 11 players so it’s hard to break them down, and unfortunately they broke us down once. It was another learning experience, and something to apply going as we go forward.”
Northwestern outshot Dakota Wesleyan 18-12 in the contest, with nine of them being on goal. Freshman Luis Hernandez had three saves. Freshman Leo Sanchez had four shots, sophomore Harri Edwards, junior Taylor Biggs and freshman Gabriel Goncalves had two shots as well.
“It was a close game, but we didn’t really play to our potential,” Edwards said. “They were a good team and they were hard to break down. We can bounce back on Saturday and get a home game to start the playoffs.”
NW had a disappointing 4-0 loss to top ranked Hastings College last Saturday. Hastings controlled the offensive attack of the match and outshot the Raiders 28-8 in the match. They scored in the 24th, 40th, 59th and 88th minute.
Hernandez made eight saves in goal. Edwards, Biggs and sophomore Nick Hengst had shots on goal.
There were moments where the Raiders felt they controlled the pace and strung together some good possessions.
“If anyone in the conference can beat them, it’s us,” said junior captain Nathan Mastbergen.
NW looks forward to securing a first round home playoff game. They will host the final regular season matchup against Concordia this Saturday at 7 p.m.