Evergreen Ends Nine Game Losing Streak against Concordia University

October 2, 2003

OLYMPIA, Wash. - The five overtime periods that The Evergreen State College Men's Soccer team have played this season versus ranked soccer teams paid dividends today against Cascade Conference leading Concordia University.

The visiting Cavaliers (4-1-0 CCC, 7-5-0) scored first, in the 9th minute, but the Geoducks (2-2-1 CCC, 4-5-1) answered with two goals before the half-time intermission and one addition score in the second half to send Concordia home with their first conference loss, 3-1.

"Today's win was a big boost for the team," said head men's soccer coach Tom Boatright. "A win by Alberton at Western Baptist tomorrow will put us right back into the playoff race."

Although Evergreen forward Joe Gjertsen (Tacoma, Wash./Wilson H.S.) was the game high scorer once again, with two goals, his 15th and 16th of the season, this victory was a team effort. Concordia's offense was throttled by Evergreen's defense, getting off only nine total shots, three quarters of their normal offensive output. On average, an opposing goalkeeper has to fend off at least eight Concordia shots-on-goal each game. Whereas today, Evergreen goalkeeper Tommy Kneeshaw (Eatonville, Wash. /Eatonville H.S.) only had to turn back four Concordia shots.

"I learned when I played here at Evergreen, for Coach (Arno) Zoske), that you have to have good defense in order to push the ball on the offensive end," coach Boatright explained.

The Geoducks last victory over the Cavaliers was in 1986, when Boatright was a defense standout for Evergreen.

Evergreen's offense, like their defense, was also a team effort, with six different players taking shots at Concordia keeper Dustin Cash. The main reason why Evergreen score three times as many goals as the Cavaliers is because they took twice as many shots, 18 to 9.

Junior Nathan Ford (Steilacoom, Wash./Steilacoom H.S.) became the Geoducks #2 scorer when he tied the score at 1-1 in the 21st minute, his fourth goal of the season.

With the victory, Evergreen moves into a fourth place tie with Western Baptist in the Cascade Conference standings. A win on Saturday (Oct. 4) against visiting Cascade College will put the Geoducks firmly in the hunt for the post season tournament, as the second half of conference action gets underway next week. The difference this time around is that Evergreen must play five of their final six conference games on the road.