Lombard Street Special

MOORHEAD, Minn. (10/11/17)---In a game that featured more twists and turns than Lombard Street in San Francisco, a short-handed Concordia squad battled No.5-ranked St. Thomas deep into the second half before finally losing 3-1.

The Cobbers had to play with only 10 players after the referee deemed a two-player incident at the top of the Concordia penalty area to be a straight red card offense. The Cobbers went down a player in the 26th minute of play and proceeded to give the Top 5 Tommies all they could handle for the last 64 minutes of play.

Concordia (3-8-1/1-4-1 MIAC) hung on to the 0-0 tie after the incident in the middle part of the first half and were able to get to the locker room deadlocked.

The game took its biggest turn shortly after the break when senior Jacob Schmidt gave the Cobbers an unexpected 1-0 lead. Schmidt finished off a quality passing sequence for his second goal in as many games. Sophomore Noah Gjesdahl won the ball 40 yards out from goal and slid a pass to Aronah Mukhtar. As the defense collapsed around Mukhtar at the top of the penalty area he deftly passed the ball to his right where Schmidt was running on to the ball from the right side of the penalty area. Schmidt took one touch and then pounded a low shot into the far left corner of the net.

Schmidt's strike at the 48:02 marked the first time that St. Thomas had been scored upon in four games.

The game then took another turn as Concordia went into a defensive shell to try and protect the lead while the Tommies started to push more and more players forward.

The Cobber bunker held for almost 15 minutes before St. Thomas got the game-tying goal in the 61st minute of play.

Concordia then tried to get back their offensive rhythm but playing with only 10 men for over 40 minutes took its toll and St. Thomas scored the game-winning goal off a well-placed left-footed volley from 20 yards out at the 71:50 mark.

St. Thomas (13-1-0/7-0-0 MIAC) finished off the scoring with a dead ball goal in the 84th minute of play.

The teams played even in the first 25 minutes of play when both squads had 11 players. At that point both teams had three shots with Concordia holding the best chance after missing a breakaway in the 11th minute of play.

The shot total finished at 3-3 in the first half despite Concordia playing short-handed for almost a full 25 minutes.

The final shot total was 10-4 in favor of UST. Schmidt led CC with two shots.

Goalie Jackson Carr made five saves and was solid in goal for the Cobbers.              

WHAT'S NEXT: Concordia will continue with conference play when they travel to Northfield to take on St. Olaf on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 1 p.m.