Men’s Soccer moves on in playoffs

The Beavers hosted the Northwest Tech Mavericks in the first ever playoff game played in Pratt on Sun., Oct. 23. Both teams looked nervous from the start, and neither team created any clear cut goal scoring chances. However, the Beavers got a break after 30 minutes of play, when a Northwest Tech defender was called for a handball in the penalty box. From the resulting penalty kick, Jonny Porta gave the Beavers the 1-0 lead.
 
The second half continued in the same fashion with both teams struggling to take clear control of the game. Suddenly, Gary Rafferty supplied a perfect pass to Nick Bohne who scored to give the Beavers a 2-0 advantage with 30 minutes left in the game. Then a strange decision from the referee to gave Scott Robertson a second yellow card, resulted in Pratt having to play the final 25 minutes with a man down. Northwest Tech piled on the pressure, and were rewarded with a goal to make it 2-1 with 20 minutes to play.
 
Even playing with 10 men, the Beavers still had chances to increase their lead, and held on for the historic 2-1 win. The Beavers reward for winning, is a trip to Concordia to take on #1 seed Cloud County Community College on Tues., Oct. 25 at 2 p.m.