Skipworth ties school career goals mark in loss
FREMONT, Neb. – Concordia senior forward Aaron Skipworth’s goal in the 54th minute knotted the score on Tuesday and placed the Colorado Springs, Colo., native in a tie with Bernie Ochoa for the school’s career goals record of 31. Unfortunately, Skipworth’s second goal of the season was not enough as host Midland came up with a 3-1 victory.
“It was a closer game than what the score ended up,” Concordia head coach Jason Weides said. “There were periods where we dominated play and there were periods where they dominated play. It was cyclical.
“We couldn’t get enough chances on goal in the first 20 minutes when we really played well. We were aggressive, we were all over them. It just didn’t result in a goal.”
For Skipworth, the goal was his first since Sept. 8 when the Bulldogs knocked off then No. 20 Grand View 2-1. His back of the netter off the assist from junior forward Nathan Douglas gave Concordia (9-4, 2-3 GPAC) life after it was held scoreless in the first half on Tuesday evening. But the Warriors would respond about nine minutes later.
That’s when Danny Pollard connected on an unassisted goal to put Midland (7-4-2, 5-1 GPAC) up for good. Then in the 75th minute, the Warriors’ Alan Craig added his second goal of the game, and 10th on the season, to give Midland plenty of breathing room in the closing minutes.
“The positive was that we never backed down,” Weides said. “We still worked hard to score. We had a couple opportunities where we narrowly missed making it 3-2, which would have made things interesting down the stretch.”
In the absence of sophomores Chris DeFeyter and Kevin Soenksen, freshman Gideon Soenksen stepped up and performed exceptionally well as a midfielder. The younger Soenksen “was all over the pitch and covered up a lot of things defensively,” according to Weides.
Skipworth still has at least six more games to try to break Ochoa’s school goals record. It’s been a remarkable career for Skipworth, who posted 11 goals as freshman during a First Team All-GPAC campaign, nine as a sophomore and nine more last season as a junior.
Tuesday’s 3-1 score was identical to the final tally of last year’s GPAC quarterfinal game on Nov. 1 when the Warriors ended Concordia’s season.
The Bulldogs return home Saturday to Bulldog Stadium where they have won 14 of their last 15 games. Morningside (4-8-1, 2-2-1 GPAC) will serve as the homecoming opponent for a contest that is scheduled to get underway at 7:30 p.m.