CHICAGO, Ill. - Wednesday brought with it the CCIW Men's Soccer Championships Semifinals and No. 6 Augustana College men's soccer (6-5-6, 2-3-3) was in Chicago to face No. 2 North Park University (13-1-4, 6-0-2) with a trip to the title game on the line. After 89 minutes of scoreless action, North Park cashed in on a last-minute penalty kick to beat Augustana 1-0 and end the Vikings' season.
Inside the Box Score
How It Happened
First Half
Augustana was challenged early by the NPU offense, facing three shots in the opening 10 minutes. However, the first of those attempts missed the net and the other two were blocked by the Augie defense. After a pair of missed shots, the Vikings of North Park finally put something on goal at 19:17, but Banke responded with his first stop of the night. Banke was called upon again just over three minutes later as he made a second save.
Augie's first shot of the night came at 26:11 when Karubas' attempt missed to the left. The next 10 minutes were dominated by the defenses, with the only shot coming from NPU and it missed the cage. Dottin tried his hand at breaking the tie at 37:51, but his attempt was blocked.
Over the final eight minutes of the first half, NPU mustered another pair of shots that missed the frame before San Pedro sent a shot over the net at the buzzer to end the opening frame scoreless.
Second Half
After Dottin opened the half with a missed shot, North Park had back-to-back chances to score starting at 49:38, but Augie blocked the first shot and the follow-up attempt went wide left. NPU kept pressuring though; after another two of their shots failed to reach the net, Banke had to make back-to-back saves at 55:02 and 55:20 to keep the game scoreless. North Park had a third shot attempt after Banke's second save, but it safely sailed wide left of the net.
Neither squad would find the net until 68:02 when Banke added another save to his total. It would then take almost 20 minutes for another scoring chance, which came at 85:30 when a North Park shot from in front of the net went over the crossbar. But Augie would make a costly mistake less than four minutes later. With 58 seconds remaining in regulation, the Vikings committed a foul in the penalty area and North Park converted on the ensuing penalty kick to take a 1-0 lead. The Vikings could not find a response in the final minute of play, falling to NPU 1-0 and seeing their season come to an end
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