September 28, 1998

Monmouth,IL – The Monmouth soccer teams hosted Midwest Conference North Division rivals Carroll and Ripon at Bobby Woll Field this past weekend in men’s and women’s action but could only come up with one victory in the four matches. The women’s team lost to Carroll on Saturday 2-1 but rebounded to defeat Ripon by the same score on Sunday. The split moves the women’s record to 4-4 on the season and 1-2 in league play. The men were also looking for their first conference victory but could only manage a 2-2 tie with Carroll on Saturday before dropping Sunday’s match to Ripon 5-1. The men’s season record now stands at 2-5-2 and the squad is 0-3-1 in four MWC matches.

In men’s action Monmouth scored two goals for the first time this season but it wasn’t enough against Carroll as the two teams played to a 2-2 tie. Carroll jumped out to an early lead with a goal only ten minutes into the match and held the 1-0 lead at halftime. Monmouth finally got its offense on track in the second period as senior Kai Riber (Des Moines,IA/Singapore American) scored his first two goals of the season. Riber converted a throw-in pass from freshman Justin Wheeler (Charlseton,IL/HS) at 57:39 to draw the Scots even and put Monmouth ahead six minutes later with an unassisted goal in front of the Pioneer net. Carroll, however, was able to beat freshman keeper Joel Cowan (Alton,IL/HS) with the tying goal in the waning seconds of the match to send it into overtime. Neither team could score in the overtime periods and the match ended in a draw.

Against Ripon the Scots fell behind early again, allowing a goal only eight minutes into the match. However, Monmouth’s Matt Burge (Champaign,IL/ Central) beat the Red Hawk goalie for his first goal of the season late in the first half to tie the score at intermission. Ripon turned up the pressure in the second half and exploded for four goals to claim victory. The Hawks scored two goals in 15 seconds early in the second period to build a 3-1 advantage and added two more scores late in the match for the final margin.

Monmouth will play Augustana at Bobby Woll Field on Wednesday afternoon (4:00 PM kick-off) in a non-conference match before traveling north for a Midwest Conference league doubleheader at Beloit and Lake Forest next weekend.