Courtesy of Midland Athletics
FREMONT, Neb. – Midland University hosted (RV) Briar Cliff University for their final regular-season home match on Wednesday night. The Warriors played down an athlete for the majority of the game following a handball in the early stages that yielded the first goal to the Chargers. Despite a valiant effort, Midland fell to BCU 2-0 and dropped to 8-5-4 overall and 6-3-2 (20 points) in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Briar Cliff improves to 12-1-3 and still has their conference title hopes intact with a 10-0-1 record (31 pts.) in the conference, two points behind Jamestown.
BCU started off with four straight shots to begin the opening half. In the 19th minute, Arianna Flores was whistled for a handball in the box. That set the Chargers up with a penalty kick and sent the Warriors to ten players for the rest of the game.
Briar Cliff took advantage and scored on the penalty kick then added an insurance goal later on in the half.
In the 32nd minute, Mady Soumare gave BCU their second goal off an assist by Taylor Alkire. The Warriors were outshot 9-1 by the Chargers in the first half.
After intermission, Midland’s defense was able to keep their guests from adding to their lead. Being short a player limited their offensive chances as they couldn’t mount a successful attack to put themselves on the board.
Head coach Cody Bartlow had this to say about the execution of his team, playing a player down for the majority of the game. “I felt like we were the better team in the second half. It was unfortunate that we couldn’t get to half 1-0, but the girls fought every second of the game. It’s a tough call that changed what would’ve been a great contest. All in all, we’re proud of the girls tonight and already looking forward to finishing the regular season off on a strong note on Saturday.”
Midland (8-5-4, 6-3-2 GPAC) will go north to face Mount Marty (1-12-2, 0-11-0 GPAC) in their final regular season match before the GPAC Tournament. First kick is set for 5:30 p.m. in Yankton, South Dakota at Crane-Youngworth Field. Midland has won 20 straight matches over the Lancers, dating back to the 2002 season.
