Simpson takes down Cardinals for back-to-back road wins

WINONA, Minn. - The Simpson College men's soccer team used a second consecutive clean sheet to claim back-to-back road wins with a 1-0 victory over Saint Mary's (Minn.), Wednesday.

Baraka Ellie scored for the second straight game and now leads the Storm (6-2) with three goals on the year.

While the Storm controlled the game throughout with multiple chances, it was the Cardinals (3-3-2) who started off on the front foot. They forced goalkeeper Nate Hersom into a save in the first two minutes of the game. The Cardinals had two more shots before Alan Imamovic had the first chance for the Storm in the 15th minute, but his shot went high and wide.

Simpson started to take a stranglehold of the game after that, with Imamovic and Ellie forcing saves from Cardinal goalkeeper Daniel Sessler.

The breakthrough finally came in the 38th minute. Juan Sandoval, who had only been on the field a matter of minutes, found Ellie, whose shot beat Sessler to give the Storm a deserved 1-0 lead that the team took into the halftime interval.

The Storm had a host of chances to put the game away in the second half, namely in the latter stages. Andrew Russell had his shot saved by Sessler in the 67th minute, while Ellie's free kick was also stopped by Sessler in the 73rd minute.

Sessler, who was the primary reason why Simpson did not score multiple goals, then denied Ronaldo Ordaz-Zambrano by acrobatically tipping his long-range effort over the bar.

The Storm defense held strong once again, though, keeping their second straight clean sheet en route to holding to the 1-0 win. This marks the first time that the Storm kept back-to-back clean sheets since last October, blanking Coe and Buena Vista by 2-0 scorelines.

The Storm outshot the Cardinals 22-4, with the Cardinals only recording one shot past the half-hour mark. Simpson also dominated the corner kick count, winning that battle 8-1.

Up Next
Simpson returns to Buxton Stadium by hosting Coe on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.