Carroll Upsets Oshokosh

Cheese Athletics Staff
October 29, 2008
Carroll University @ UW Oshkosh




Carroll Upsets Oshkosh


The game was played on turf, which was of benefit to both schools. The things that may have took Carroll a little while to get use to was that the turf played much faster than their home field. That, coupled with the dew on the ground, sent a lot of our early through balls too far, ending a lot of their attacks.

Oshkosh played a 4 flat, their players had great foot skill in the back but struggled when they had to make a decision to step forward and stop the ball. They almost waited to get split and it happened on more than a few occasions.

In the early goings Oshkosh came out fast, leaving Carroll wondering if they belonged on the same field. Cross after cross sailed in front of the Carroll goal, most of them being diverted by Scott Pease or Justin Ziegler, whom both had outstanding games (despite the high score). In the 15th minute, #2 from Oshkosh took a shot from just outside of the 18, it was hit with great velocity and since it was taken out of the air, the ball had good drop to it. Miastowski got both hands on it and contrary to what he had done for Carroll all season; he batted the ball forward into an on running attacker. Miastowski did his best to block the following shot but he was too far out of position to make a difference.

1-0 Oshkosh

Less than a minute later, Oshkosh got a turnover taking the ball down the left sideline sending a ball across the face of the goal where it landed at the feet of Brian Miller (#17). He collected the ball and with seemingly all day to take on Bram Dalemahns (#14) he made a fake to the inside, then cutting the ball back to his left foot buried a shot near post. In Dalemahns defense, he should have had help with the amount of time the play took to develop but he did not have a good first half.

2-0 Oshkosh

Carroll started to gain confidence, despite the score, putting together several well engineered attacks that ended in narrow misses. In about the 30th minute Craig Carlson (#17) sent a through ball to a well guarded Andy Prentice (#6). Prentice somehow corralled the pass firing a shot near post. The ball was deflected by the goal keeper but to Prentice's surprise, landed right at his feet for an easy tap in.

2-1 Oshkosh

The half ended with the same 2-1 score, leaving Carroll with confidence heading into the second half. On more than a few occasions the Oshkosh coach was heard yelling "slow it down", meaning exactly what he says. Oshkosh would pull their forwards back to midfield allowing Carroll to walk the ball up, sending long drives to Oshkosh’s overmatched back line. This was a huge mistake for UW since they rarely formulated any attacks in the slower playing style. "Slowing" the play down is fine on defense but it carried over to their offense in such a way that it took them 30 minutes to get back their tempo.

With the score remaining at 2-1, Dona Lado (#12) made a run down the right sideline playing the ball, like he normally does, across the face of the goal to a wide open Alex Goranson (#4). Goranson seemed to have too much time to think about the play, he hesitated in deciding to head the ball or to tap the hip high cross in the goal, by the time he decided to use his right foot, he sent the ball 20 feet over the cross bar from just 5 yards away.

Merely minutes later and much like how Oshkosh scored against Carroll, 2 goals in 2 minutes; Carroll returned the favor. In the 67th and 68th minute, Mark Hietpas and Andy Prentice scored goals giving the Pioneers the edge at 3-2. The first goal was off a corner kick taken by Dalehmans. The ball was sent to the front post where Scott Pease headed the ball towards the goal line, drawing the keeper off his line. The keeper got tangled up in his own defenders, leaving him out of position for the Hietpus tap in.

The second goal was a steal by Prentice from the right center back. The center back and the keeper were trying to connect on a quick pass and clear but with the miscommunication; it pulled the keeper off of his line giving Prentice another easy tap in.

3-2 Carroll

In the 78th minute, Scott Pease went down with a leg injury, sending freshman Adam Bruck into this highly contested match. As soon as he stepped on the field all of the action seemed to go to Bruck. He made one miss touch 20 yards out of the goal, in which Ziegler was able to clear and then Bruck may have had the play of the day blocking a shot off of his face that seemed destined to find the net.

Pease returned minutes later but in the 84th minute Oshkosh received a corner kick off of a defensive breakdown in Carroll back line. The corner kick was sent to the back of the 6 yard area, as it had been all night, with Carroll having a severe height disadvantage Oshkosh was able to easily win the ball and drive it past the outreached hands of Miastowski.

3-3

In the remaining 6 minutes each team had their chances to end the game in regulation but neither could cash in.

Just six minutes into overtime, Dona Lado took the ball down the right sideline, and like he has done so many times before, whistled a cross just out of the reach of the goal keeper to his on-running teammates. Mark Hietpas did all he could to knock it in but was unable to catch up with the pace of the ball. But seemingly out of nowhere, Derek Marie beat his defender to the back of the six yard area driving the ball into the back of the net for the thrilling 4-3 win.

This game was highly important for both teams. UW-Oshkosh does not play in a conference and relies on their strength of schedule to get an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. It was important to Carroll, in that if they lose their conference tournament, they may still make the NCAA tournament with their own strength of schedule.

The Regionally ranked Carroll Pioneers have won 12 straight matches and will be taking on Lawrence University on Friday November 7th in the first round of the Midwest Conference Playoffs.

Bump

Nicely done boys