Sioux City, Iowa –
Dakota Wesleyan University men's soccer ended their season in the quarterfinals of the GPAC Playoffs against Briar Cliff University 5-0. The Tigers held the receiving votes Chargers to 0-0 in the first half but would give up five goals in the second half. After the match, Head Coach Nico Reinhard had this to say about this season, "Amazing, to go from three wins last year to seven wins and the playoffs after being picked last in the conference is huge. The guys showed just how competitive they are this year, and conference knows we are growing as a program."
How It Happened –
DWU men's soccer made their first playoff appearance since the 2020 season this afternoon as they faced the Chargers of Briar Cliff University on the road. In the first 45 minutes of play, the Tigers were only able to take one shot attempt on goal while the Chargers fired eight shots. Hunter Birozy and the Tigers defense stood tall however as Birozy grabbed six saves and the defense was able to force the Chargers to take tough shots that missed the goal. Things got chippy early between the two teams as each had a player pick up yellow cards and combined for five fouls. The Tigers went into the locker room at half with the score knotted up at 0-0.
The second half, the teams came back to the pitch and the Chargers took control. Even with all the Tigers defenders back, Briar Cliff would score their first goal in the 52' minute. This opened the gates for BCU as they would score four more goals in the second half and held the Tigers to only three second half shots. Vladislav Burkov took all four shots in the Tigers offense; one being saved by the opposing goalkeeper and the other three just going over the crossbar by several inches. Coach Reinhard had this to say after the matchup, "It was a game of two halves, we stuck to our game plan in the first half, stayed under control and had a few chances that we couldn't capitalize on. In the second half after that first goal, we collapsed a little bit. I think it is the maturity, we had a lot of freshmen here in the game. BC took advantage of that and took every inch we gave them." Birozy ended the match with 10 saves and ended the season with 86 total saves. Briar Cliff outshot the Tigers 19-4 in the playoff matchup.
Looking Forward –
The Tigers finished their season with a record of 7-9-1 overall and 3-7-1 in GPAC play.
This match ended the Tigers season, but the Tigers plan to improve in the offseason. "We are going to treat the off season like preseason. We are going to keep lifting weights, staying fit and working on our skills. This off season will be huge; this program has seen a lot of turnover in the past and this season everyone is on board and sticking around. We are going to mature and build team chemistry. We have a few tourneys scheduled for the spring and look to build from those." – Coach Reinhard