DECATUR, Ill. – Augustana made a pair of first-half goals stand up Saturday night, defeating Millikin 2-1 at Lindsay Field. Coach
Mick Regan's club won its second in a row to improve to 5-7 on the season and
Senior Jeff Bell recorded five
saves a picked up his second
straight win Saturday, as Augustana
defeated Millikin 2-1 in Decatur,
Illinois.
3-2 in the CCIW. The Vikings' win snapped a five-match Big Blue winning streak, as the hosts fell to 8-4 overall and 3-1 in the league.
Sophomore
Chris Plantz (Larkin HS, Elgin, Ill.) got Augustana on the board in the 29th minute. He took a short heel pass from junior
Salah Aghlaf (Casablanca, Morocco) and put a left-footed, 35-yard blast past Millikin keeper Isaac Hopper into the left side of the net.
The Vikings upped the lead to 2-0 in the 41st minute. Senior
Jack McKearnan's (Warren HS, Gurnee, Ill.) free kick from 45 yards on the left side found Aghlaf near the far post and Aghlaf put his header past Hopper for his team-leading third goal of the season.
Augustana took that 2-0 advantage to the locker room after outshooting Millikin by a 6-3 margin in the opening half.
The Big Blue picked up the pace in the second half, outshooting the Vikings 12-3 and putting half of their attempts on frame. Senior keeper
Jeff Bell (Pleasant Valley HS, Bettendorf, Iowa), in his first start of the season, was up to the challenge, recording five saves before a high-scoring Millikin side finally got on the board in the 86th minute. Off an Austin Taylor throw-in, Bradyn Nokes placed his header from 10 yards perfectly in the upper left corner to cut the deficit in half.
The hosts' last gasp came on Dalton Gilbert's try from a severe angle on the right side with just seconds remaining. Gilbert's shot was wide right and Augustana allowed the clock to expire.
Bell, who relieved an injured
Jeremy Klaber (Stevenson HS, Buffalo Grove, Ill.) in Wednesday's double-overtime win over Illinois Wesleyan, won his second in a row. He finished with five saves and limited the Big Blue—who had scored at least three goals in each of their five straight wins—to a single score.
Millikin finished with a 15-9 advantage in shots and put six on frame to five for the Vikings. The Big Blue took all six corners in the match.
Regan's crew is back in action on Thursday, October 18, traveling to Platteville, Wisconsin to take on UW-Platteville in a match that was postponed on September 22 due to inclement weather.
