Pochop overtime goal stuns Central

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Garrett Pochop scored on a penalty kick in overtime to give the Simpson men's soccer team a 3-2 win over undefeated Central on Saturday afternoon.

The Storm (8-0, 1-0) thought they had the game in their hands a little too soon as Salvador Salado-Herrera found himself at midfield following a Simpson foul to assist Bryce Leonard with the tying score to force overtime in the final ten seconds. 

Seth Bowman was able to put the Storm up early in the 12th minute for his second goal of the season. Both teams continued to battle but Simpson led 1-0 at the halfway mark.

Bryce Leonard took advantage of an opportunity created by Seth Signs to tie the game up 1-1 in the 64th minute. Tanner Alderson responded very quickly by taking a pass from Pochop past the goalie to retake the lead 2-1 just over a minute later.

Simpson held the lead until 9 seconds from the buzzer when Bryce Leonard stepped up for the Dutch (6-1-0, 0-1-0) and made his second goal of the game to tie it 2-2 and force extra time.

Pochop took an early shot in overtime that was blocked by Salado-Herrera before being fouled in the box, leading to a successful penalty kick four minutes into overtime.

News and Notes
• Simpson continues it's winning streak, improving to 8-0-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the conference. The men are now the only undefeated team in the Iowa Conference and sit with just ten other undefeated d3 soccer teams nationally.

• Pochop's overtime goal marks his ninth career game-winning goal and brings his career total to 38, just three shy of becoming the program's career leader. Mitchell White holds the record with 42 goals from 2011-14.

• Alderson leads the team in goals on the season, scoring almost 40% of the Storm's season goals. He has scored a goal in 6 of 8 games this season bringing his total count for the last fifteen games dating back to the 2016 season to 18 goals.

• Simpson improves to 10-8-8 in extra time under seventh-year head coach Rick Isaacson. The Storm went just 3-6-6 from 2012-15 but are 4-2-1 in extra time over the last two seasons.

Up Next
Simpson travels to Illinois to face Augustana in a mid-afternoon contest on Sunday. The Vikings (0-5) are coming off a 2-1 loss to Knox.