SEWARD, Neb. – On back-to-back Saturdays inside Bulldog Stadium, the Concordia University Men’s Soccer team has gone wild for a half dozen goals. In the latest weekend home rout, the Bulldogs got two more goals from the surging Dominic Abdel-Ahad and ran away from visiting Jamestown, 6-0. A hyper-active version of Concordia put 14 shots on frame and tagged the Jimmies with their most lopsided defeat of 2022.
Head Coach Jason Weides’ squad felt like it had squandered a victory Wednesday night at Morningside in what amounted to a 2-2 tie. There would be no doubt on this crisp fall Saturday. The Bulldogs (10-2-1, 5-1-1 GPAC) have hit the 10-win mark overall.
“It was, top to bottom, a good performance by us,” Weides said. "We had everybody contribute with guys who started and guys who came off the bench. Our communication was so much better today, which makes the game so much simpler. Our pressing was good today. We forced Jamestown into a lot of uncharacteristic errors. It was good to get some goals early and keep on coming.”
Boy did Concordia make Jamestown pay for any mistakes that came about. This one was well in hand by halftime as Abdel-Ahad notched his eighth and ninth goals of the season in the opening 16 minutes while Matt Schultz and Max Bisinger also collected a goal apiece. Then in the second half, Adrian Wambua and Miguel Navarro found their way into the goal scoring column. By game’s end, the shot count showed the Bulldogs with a 21-10 advantage.
Concordia managed to score in a variety of ways and was particularly dangerous in set-piece situations as Carlos Orquiz set up two of the six goals. As for Abdel-Ahad, his relentless paid off when he chased down his own deflected shot and drilled the back of the net in the 16th minute. The goal for Wambua in the 53rd minute marked the first of his career. Suddenly, the Bulldogs are averaging more than 2.5 goals per game in 2022.
Said Weides, “Early in the season we were winning 1-0 or 2-1 and couldn’t seem to put a lot of goals in the back of the net. We’re finally starting to see it. Dom’s emerged to convert those chances, but we also have others scoring goals and some who haven’t who are very capable. We’re excited about how we’re progressing on the attack as the season goes on. Our goal wasn’t to be our best the first couple weeks of the season, it was to be our best towards the end.”
Defensively, Concordia recorded its fifth shutout of the season and first since the 2-0 win over Bethany College (Kan.) on Sept. 13. Keepers Federico Simonetti and Nolan Fuelberth made two saves apiece while splitting up the 90 minutes. This marked the first action as a Bulldog for Fuelberth, a Lincoln Southwest High School alum.
Jamestown (4-9-1) had been coming off back-to-back wins by a combined score of 11-0. The Jimmies also had a 0-0 draw at Midland and played within a goal of Northwestern (1-0 loss). This was just the second time in conference play that Jamestown has been shut out.
The Bulldogs will have the middle of this coming week off while preparing to host Hastings (9-1, 7-0 GPAC) next Saturday (Oct. 15) in what will be a battle between the current top two teams in the GPAC standings. Concordia will attempt to take down the Broncos for the first time since the 2015 GPAC tournament championship game.