On Oct. 17 Denver men’s soccer faced Summit League opponent University of Nebraska Omaha on CIBER Field. A physical match, the game was sent into double-overtime, but the Pios were able to walk away with a 1-0 victory.
In the 101st minute of the game, redshirt junior and Summit League Athlete of the Month Reagan Dunk (Dallas, Texas) dribbled down the right flank to find the feet of redshirt junior Karsten Hanlin (Centennial, Colorado) who slotted his shot to the back of the net, which gave the Pios their W.
The team’s win on Saturday bumped their home-field winning streak up to 26 matches and continued as the longest active unbeaten home streak in the nation.
Denver came into the match ranked 8th in the nation and moved up to 7th following Saturday’s win, according to the NCAA.
“[We] knew it’d be chippy and knew it’d be a big battle the whole time, so [the team] knew [we] had to stay positive and resilient to get a result and that’s what happened,” said junior captain Sam Hamilton (Evergreen, Colorado).
From the start of the match, Omaha established a very physical and intense level of play towards Denver. Throughout the game, Denver’s players sustained a couple of minor injuries, two of which actually drew blood, and four yellow cards were issued: three to Omaha players and one to Pioneer redshirt junior Chandler Crossways (Bedford, Texas).
Denver was able to find their rhythm in the first half and match the intensity of play, leveraging six shots on goal opposed to Omaha with five.
Sophomore Alex Underwood (Winnetka, Illinois) contributed greatly to the Pio offense, firing a couple of shots for Denver, but was unable to convert any.
In the second half of the match, Denver outshot Omaha 8-2. Underwood and freshman Andre Shinyashiki (San Paulo, Brazil) each had some nice looks on frame.
“[We] knew they were tired playing at 5280 [feet in elevation], it’s difficult to play 90 minutes plus,” said Hamilton.
The first period of overtime was dominated by Denver with two shots taken by Shinyashiki and one from senior captain Jordan Schweitzer (Everett, Washington). Omaha had two shots in the first round of extra time, but none required Denver keeper Dan Jackson (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) to make any saves.
The second period of overtime took just over a minute for freshman Kenny Akamatsu (Niigata, Japan) to play the run from Dunk.
The initial cross was deflected, then recovered and sent to a patient Hanlin, who composedly netted his fourth of the season.
“I think [we] could have made the game even easier on [ourselves] and [we] didn’t have the best game tonight. But overall, [we] got the shut-out and, more importantly, the result,” said Head Coach Jamie Franks.
The Pios lace up for their next match at the University of Portland on Oct. 24.
