ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Concordia- St. Paul soccer team (13-3-3) won their eighth straight game to advance to the Semifinals of the NSIC Tournament with a 1-0 win over the Beavers of Bemidji State (9-7-3) in an windy early afternoon game at Sea Foam Stadium.
Concordia claimed just their fifth quarterfinal win in program history and second in a row after last year's first round upset over the #19 ranked Minnesota State Mavericks.
The Golden Bears will return to action on Friday to face Minot State in Mankato, Minnesota for the semifinal matchup. For more information and updates on the NSIC Tournament, follow along at CSPBears.com.
Following the win, head coach Steve Bellis stated, "Today we met an awesome opponent and some tough weather conditions. We grounded out an amazing win and showed some real squad strength to get us into the next round."
Sophia Haase once again highlighted the day for the Golden Bears scoring her team-leading eighth goal of the season.
The Navy and Gold looked to keep the Beavers on the outside playing BSU for the second time in the last two weeks.
CSP got off to a strong start holding down the Beavers and giving the Golden Bears offense time to breakaway having three shots to the BSU one in the first twenty minutes.
At the 22nd minute Sophia Haase scored the eventual game-winner on a header coming from a Clare Snapko corner kick.
Both teams had four shots and three saves in the first half with Concordia holding the 3-1 corner kick advantage.
In the second half the Beavers were doing anything they could to place themselves on the scoreboard. They outshot the Golden Bears 4-1 and held a 3-1 corner kick advantage.
CSP kept up with every BSU attempt, forcing the ball up and down the field, killing the Beavers momentum each time.
Two corner kicks and two shots for Bemidji in the final 15 minutes were blocked by a lock-tight Golden Bears team.
Holding down the defensive side of the pitch for the Navy and Gold were Snapko, Belle Abruzzo and Haley Rudebusch who allowed just four shots on goal and played a full 90-minute outing.
Abruzzo, Snapko, Haase, Amaya O'Hearn and Lexi Pettit all had one shot on goal in the game.
Goalkeeper Sydney Potter once again continued her reign in the net, holding her 11th shutout of the season to put herself at fifth all-time in career shutouts. She tallied four saves to bring her season total to 46 including a leaping save at the 41st minute.
