ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer program advanced in the GLIAC tournament with penalty kicks Saturday afternoon against St. Cloud State University. After 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, Saginaw Valley advanced 4-3 on penalty kicks.
It was a hard-fought match between the fifth-seed Cardinals and the fourth-seed Huskies. SVSU had multiple chances throughout and led offensively as they outshot SCSU 24-11 and had 10 shots on goal to the Huskies five.
Jack Simms started in goal and played all 110 minutes. He stopped all five shots on goal and two of the five he faced in penalty kicks including a leaping save late in the game to keep the game scoreless. Elliot Nottoli led with four shot attempts and had two on goal. Mzo Mthembu had three shots and all of them found their target. Benjamin Adamson in his return also had two shots with both of them on goal.
After 90 minutes was up and the game tied, the two teams set up for two 10-minute overtime periods. Saginaw Valley had multiple chances in OT to take the lead, but the Huskie goalkeeper and defense did not break.
After 20 more minutes of play, it was down to penalty kicks. The Cardinals shot first and took an early lead with Jonathan Monney netting the first shot. After a goal for St. Cloud State, Jason Squeo kept up the pressure netting the second penalty kick. On the Huskies second chance, Simms made a diving save to his right to keep the 2-1 advantage. Anthony Waller doubled down with a goal in the third shot, and the Huskies answered back with one of their own to make it 3-2 SVSU after three shots. Adamson missed the first Cardinal shot to open up the fourth round and the Huskies tied it at 3-3 making it come down to the fifth round. Donna Kheswa slowly strolled up and faked out the goalkeeper with a soft shot to the bottom right corner. Coming down to the final shot, Vukota Mastilovic for St. Cloud State put one off the crossbar and out and the Cardinals advanced.
Saginaw Valley now gets set for the GLIAC semifinals. They will head to Parkside to play the GLIAC regular season champions on Saturday, November 4 at 1:00 PM.