Release Date:  November 5, 2001

For the first time in the 30-year history of the program, the Monmouth College Fighting Scots men’s soccer team has qualified for the Division III national tournament.

The Scots accomplished the feat by recording a 1-0 victory Saturday over Midwest Conference regular season champion Lake Forest on the Foresters’ home field in the championship match of the MWC tournament. Monmouth will travel to Decorah, Iowa, Wednesday to play Luther College at 5:30 p.m. in an NCAA first-round game. No MWC team has ever won a game at the national tourney and the Scots are the fifth team from the conference to qualify.

For the fifth straight match, Monmouth scored a first half goal to take a 1-0 lead, as sophomore midfielder Alex Sandoval (East Moline, IL/HS) headed home a high cross by senior forward Ryan Schlegel (St. Charles, IL/Central) in the 40th minute. Schegel had dribbled the ball to the far right corner, then launched a pass 60 feet into the air that the Lake Forest goalkeeper had a hard time judging. The ball came down just a yard or two in front of the goal, and Sandoval nodded it home for his third goal of the season.

The Scots controlled play throughout the first half and had nearly all of the scoring chances, but that changed in the second half, and Lake Forest had several fine scoring opportunities. After only shooting twice in the first half, the Foresters booted 12 shots in the final 45 minutes and hit the post on two occasions, the last with less than five minutes to play. The Scots were able to hang on, though, as senior goalkeeper Joel Cowan (Alton, IL/HS) posted his third shutout of the year, making six saves.

Monmouth, which is 7-1-2 in its last 10 matches, improved to 9-5-3 with the victory, the 81st of coach Rue Carthew’s 11-year career at MC.

“The kids deserve this,” he said. “They’ve scrapped and fought hard all season.”

Check out action photos from the game!

Released by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330

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