Pochop strikes twice, Storm beat Wartburg to advance

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Garrett Pochop scored two goals and the Simpson men's soccer team beat Wartburg 3-1 in the first round of the Iowa Conference Tournament on a crisp Saturday evening at Buxton Stadium.

Pochop improved his conference-leading goals scored total to 17 to help the Storm (14-2-2) advance to the conference tournament semifinals for the third straight season. The third-seeded Storm will meet second-seeded Loras on Wednesday, Nov. 1 in Dubuque.

Just six days removed from a 1-1 draw with Wartburg, Simpson got on the board early when Seth Bowman played a cross to Pochop who finished to give the Storm a 1-0 advantage in the 21st minute. Simpson took a 2-0 lead into the locker room at halftime when Nick Joslyn served a corner to Tanner Alderson who went far corner in the 39th minute.

The Knights (8-5-5) made things interesting in the 55th minute when Jakub Rys headed in a cross from Devin Eby to cut the lead to 2-1.

Pochop added an insurance goal in the 61st minute when he took a ball from Colin Robinson, beat a defender and fired a right-footed delivery inside the near post from 15 yards out.

Defensively Jake Potratz made four saves, including two big ones off quality headers in the final five minutes.

Notes & Numbers
• Simpson's 15 wins are one shy of tying the school record of 16 set in 1999 and tied in 2000. Simpson also won 15 games in 2002.
• Simpson evened the all-time series against Wartburg at 13-13-3 and is now 3-1-1 against the Knights in the IIAC Tournament.
• Simpson improves to 16-18-4 all-time in the IIAC Tournament (22 appearances).
• Simpson is now 12-1-1 in 2017 when holding opponents to one goal or less.
• Garrett Pochop's two goals give him two, multi-goal games in the postseason over the last two seasons and five postseason goals for his career. He scored a hat trick in a 4-3, first-round win over Central in 2016.

Up Next
The third-seeded Storm travel to Dubuque to face second-seeded Loras in the semifinals on Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m. The Duhawks (12-5) beat Simpson 1-0 on Oct. 15, part of an eight-game winning streak to close the season.