Greg Foote Oct. 30, 2007

Foote's heroics push Central to conference semifinals

PELLA—Three penalty-kick shootout saves by goalkeeper Greg Foote (junior, Maple Grove, Minn.) pushed the Central College men’s soccer team to the semifinals of the Iowa Conference tournament after Dutch battled to a 1-1 draw after two overtimes with the University of Dubuque Tuesday.

Central won the shootout 3-2, as Foote was dominant, knocking away three of five Spartan shots.

“What can you say about Greg Foote?,” said head coach Garry Laidlaw. “He displayed his tremendous reflexes in the shootout and provided us with a big boost.”

The Dutch (14-4-2) move on to a league semifinal match with second-seeded Wartburg College (14-2-1) Friday at 7 p.m. at Loras College in Dubuque. At 4:30 p.m. Friday top-seeded Loras (18-0-1) will take on the winner of Tuesday evening’s match between No. 5-seeded Simpson College (3-13-1) and fourth-seeded Luther College (8-9-2).

Central travels to Dubuque Friday for a 7 p.m. conference semifinal match-up against Wartburg with the winner moving on to the finals Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Dutch got on the scoreboard first when midfielder Cody Stoermer (senior, Coralville, Iowa City West HS) scored off a rebound after midfielder Cody Jandik (freshman, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Valley Christian HS) hit a rocket that Dubuque goalkeeper Joshua Jones was barely able to get a hand on.

The chances of a Central win in regulation appeared to increase when Ellis Kelling received his second yellow card of the match forcing a red card. By rule, Kelling was ejected and the Spartans were forced to play shorthanded.

Central’s inability to capitalize on the player advantage proved costly when Jin Keyong Park was able to head a goal off a throw-in from Adrian Brambilla as the ball barely crossed the line before the Dutch could clear it away.

“It was very unfortunate to give up the tying goal with less than 3 minutes left,” said Laidlaw.

Neither team was able score a sudden-death goal in the extra periods. However, the second overtime was eventful as Stoermer received his second yellow card of the match and consequently a red card with 8:22 remaining. The Dutch and the Spartans played the remainder of the match with 10 players a side.

After being sidelined in a shootout with Loras in last year’s conference tournament , the Dutch reversed their fortunes. With the best out-of-five kicks determining the winner forward Brett McKenzie (freshman, Lindenhurst, Ill), midfielder Blake Scott (senior, Norwalk) and midfielder Chris Purdue (junior, Maple Grove, Minn.) converted on their kicks for the Dutch while Foote made three saves to advance.

“The spirit on the squad never waned,” said Laidlaw. “I was confident we would win it, even when it went to a shootout.”

The Dutch will look for a better result in a second meeting against Wartburg as the Knights downed Central 3-1 Oct. 6 in Pella.