WINONA, Minn. – A surge of goals in the second half keeps the Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (4-0-1, 1-0-0 NSIC) undefeated on the season. The Golden Bears won 4-2 over Winona State (1-4, 0-2 NSIC) on a cloudy Sunday afternoon in Winona, Minnesota.
This marks the second year in a row that the Golden Bears have been undefeated in their first five matches of the season. Last year's team started the season 5-0 which was the best record the Bears have had to start any season, except for the 2001 season when the team beat seven non-Division II teams to begin the year.
With this win, Concordia has now won their last three matchups against the Warriors, as they defeated Winona State 1-0 last season at home. This is the fifth win that the Bears have had over Winona State, as the all-time series now sits at 5-24-1.
The Warriors struck first as they got off to a fast start with a goal at the 1:46 mark to begin the game. Courtney Wiencek got a low shot past a diving
Jordyn Clark to put Winona State up early 1-0.
The Golden Bears fought hard the rest of the half as they dominated and peppered the Warrior keeper, Yanel Ortiz. The Golden Bears out shot the Warriors 11-5 in the first half and had five shots on net and held the Warriors to only one shot on goal the entire half. CSP also had four corner kicks in the first half as well, but the Warrior defenders did a good job of covering and clearing. Both of
Katie Anderson's shots along with
Haleigh Bares,
Nikki Anderson, and
Jena Berkland's shots were stopped by Ortiz in the first half.
The Golden Bear offense exploded in the second half as they scored four straight goals.
Hannah Pedersen scored to tie the game in the 50-minute mark as she buried a goal from a great pass from
Leah Johnson. This was Pedersen's second goal of the season and Johnson's second assist of the year. Pedersen struck again five minutes later as she scored her second goal of the game with an assist from
Jackie Ehlert to put CSP up 2-1 in the second half. The Bears were not done there as they would score two more goals in the last eight minutes of the game. First it was junior
Cayla Renwick who scored form a pass from
Leah Johnson to put Concordia up 3-1. This was Renwick's first goal of the year and Johnson's second assist of the game. Freshman
Nikki Anderson made it 4-1 when she scored her second goal of the season in the 84
th minute, she was assisted by
Hannah Pedersen. The Warriors would answer as Georgette Topalis snuck a shot past
Jordyn Clark to make it 4-2, which would be the final score of the game.
The Golden Bear offense dominated throughout the entire game, they out shot Winona State 22-13 and put 14 shots on net and kept the Warriors to only five shots on goal. Concordia and Winona State both had scoring opportunities on corner kicks throughout the game, as CSP had five corner kicks and the Warriors had three
Senior
Jordyn Clark made three saves in the game and helped the Golden Bears to the Sunday afternoon victory. Clark is now 4-0-1 on the season and recorded her 13
th career victory. The Warriors keeper, Yanel Ortiz, made 10 saves on the day as she played all 90 minutes in Winona State's loss.
Golden Bear head coach
Steve Bellis commented on his teams come back victory, "We showed a solid team performance, creating multiple chances to grab the win vs a well-coached Winona side. The brand of soccer we are playing at this minute is very exciting."
Game notes:
- Hannah Pedersen's two goal game was the second time she has done that in her career, last time was against Minnesota Crookston on October 1st, 2017.
- Pedersen's five-point game was the first ever in her career. She is now tied with Leah Johnson for the team lead as they each have three goals and three assists for nine points.
- This was Leah Johnson's first ever multi assist game of her career.
- Cayla Renwick's goal was her first since 2017.
- This is the second game this season that three different Golden Bears scored in a game.
- Jackie Ehlert's assist was her first of the season and third of her career.
- Nikki Anderson leads the freshman class with two goals on the season.
- Seven different players put a shot on goal for CSP in this game
The Golden Bears will host their first home game's of the season next weekend as they will take on St. Cloud State on Friday, September 27
th, 7 p.m. at Sea Foam Stadium. They will then host Minnesota Duluth on Sunday, September 29
th, 1 p.m. at Sea Foam Stadium. You can follow along with both live stream and live stats for next weekend's action.