TERRIFIC EFFORT...TOUGH LOSS

11/14/10

On Friday night 11/12 the QU Soccer Hawks waged a tremendous battle with the Norse of Northern Kentucky but unfortunately lost 2-1 in overtime in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Soccer Tournament. For the Hawks, the #4 seed in the Midwest Regional, it was only their second appearance in NCAA post-season play since joining Division II in 1996. Quincy's only other appearance came in 1998 when they also lost in overtime, 3-2 to Truman State University.

Friday's match pitted the Hawks against NKU, the #1 seed in the Midwest Regional and currently ranked #5 in the National Top 25 poll. NKU also boasted a 2-0 win over the Hawks just one month ago and had defeated QU in each of the last five years. Though entering the match as the definite underdog the Hawks played a terrific game and forced the Norse to the very limit of their abilities to finally snatch a win.

Playing with a lot of spirit and tenacity on defense, yet calm and composed when when in possession of the ball, the Hawks actually struck first with a breakaway goal by Grant Ellison (Jr. striker from St. Dominic HS) in the 26th minute. Ellison's tally, his 15 of the season, came as the result of Ryan Seifert (Fr. winger from St. Dominic HS) intercepting a Norse pass and feeding the ball to Jack Wedemeier (Sr. striker from Cape Notre Dame HS) who in turn found Ellison streaking towrd the Norse net and hit him with a pinpoint pass to push him past the last defender allowing Ellison to slip the ball past the on-charging Norse keeper and into the far right corner of the net.

From this point on the Hawks were pretty much in charge of the match, Keeper DJ Lampert, (So. from Lutheran South HS) was at the top of his game and he was aided by outstanding defensive efforts from Mike Andres (So.right back from DeSmet HS), Zach Venvertloh (So. center back from Quincy HS), Abe Dirnberger (Sr. center back from Cape Notre Dame HS) and Carl Hodges (So. left back from Sedgefield, England) and the whole midfield line of Jake Pittroff (Sr. from Oakville HS), Corey Eatherton (Sr. from Summit HS), Greg Schaeffer (Sr. from Oakville HS). It looked like the Hawks were going to break the NKU jinx for sure until a very harsh call in the 75th minute by the match official reduced the Hawks down to 10 men as defender Mike Andres was issued a straight red card for a tackle at midfield. The tackle was from behind. However, the Norse attacker was nowhere in any scoring position and actually carrying the ball about 40 yards away from the Hawk goal heading towards the sideline when the tackle occured. Earlier in match several Hawks players were dumped to the ground by opponents with no card on even foul call issued. The official's call was a definite game changing decision as it gave life to the Norse who were staring an upset in the face and placed a tremendous strain on the Hawks who now had to battle on a man down to a very talented team. The Hawks battled hard thwarting attack after attack until the 85th minute when NKU finally slipped in and notched the tying goal on a score by their Steve Beattie, the GLVC's
Offensive Player of the Year for both 2009 and 2010, who also provided the assist pass on the game winning game by NKU's Michael Holder (2010's GLVC Freshman Player of the Year) seven minutes into overtime, breaking the hearts of Hawk players and the loyal parents and fans who traveled to Kentucky to support the team.

The loss ended the 2010 season with a record of 11-7-2. Of the Hawks 7 losses six were by one goal and four of those were in sudden death overtime. The team matured and got better and better as the season moved on and they raised the quality/skill level of Hawk soccer to its highest level in a long, long time. For their efforts, Hawk players should be proud of what they accomplished in 2010. They were GLVC semi-finalist and earned a first round appearance in the NCAA Division II National Soccer tournament something that has not happened since 1998.