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 now wait until sometime Sunday to find out its first-round playoff foe in
the 44-team event. The site is also still to be determined.
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.”
