NO. 1 NORTHEAST BEGINS NATIONAL TOURNAMENT WITH 5-1 VICTORY OVER NO. 12 PATRICK & HENRY

TUCSON, Ariz. – The No. 1 Northeast Community College men's soccer team began their run at 2023 NJCAA DII Men's Soccer Championship at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona Sunday against No. 12 Patrick & Henry Community College. The Hawks captured a 5-1 victory to put themselves in a great position to come out on top in Pool A.

Northeast (21-1, 8-0 ICCAC) went ahead early off the foot of Lewis Rourke (Nottingham, England) as Rourke became the first player on either the men's or women's side to score a goal at the national tournament this year. The Patriots evened the contest at 1-1 before Sergio Aspas (Valencia, Spain) scored on a header into the goal off a beautiful ball into the middle of the box from Jeevan Purewal (Wolverhampton, England).

The Hawks continued to roll in the second half as Aleksander Pederson (Aarhus, Denmark) scored twice to double his goal total on the year. Ben Schoenherr (Norfolk, Neb.) then punched in the fifth Northeast goal of the day as the Hawks scored more goals in the showdown with Patrick & Henry than any team did at the 2022 national tournament.

Northeast will now battle Prairie State College in what will be a rematch of the September 2 contest between the two where Northeast won 3-0 on the road.

STAT SHEET:

Goals: Lewis Rourke (Nottingham, England), Sergio Aspas (Valencia, Spain), Aleksander Pederson (Aarhus, Denmark) (2), Ben Schoenherr (Norfolk, Neb.)

Assists: Jeevan Purewal (Wolverhampton, England)

HEAR FROM THE HAWKS COACH:

Head Men's Soccer Coach Adam Potter on his team scoring four-straight goals after the match was tied at 1-1:

"It was really good to see our guys have grit and fight back," Potter said. "They responded quickly. Overall, they went and dominated the game in the second half. They took the game over. We didn't even let them have a sniff at it. We talked before the game about the fact that everyone has a fire, but championship teams ignite the spark. You could see that spark in our guys. The first 15 minutes or so were really frantic and everyone was all over the place. People were flying around. That's to be expected at the first game of a national tournament. The game was really open. In the second half you could see when people got settled in that we took control of the game and we set the tempo. They couldn't keep up."

Potter on this group getting their first victory at the national tournament:

"We conquered the day," Potter said. "Now we have to recover and get ready for the next one to conquer one day at a time. We have three to go!"

Potter on his squad taking on defending national champion Prairie State next for the second time this year:

"We have the opportunity to knock the reigning national champs out of the tournament," Potter said. "Any time you have a chance to knock off the reigning champs, it is an absolute honor. They are really well coached. It's going to be a physical battle. Bodies are going to be flying around all over the place. They sit really deep, and they try and counter. It will be very intense, physical and it will probably be one of those kinds of games with a lot of cards flying around. For the fans it will be really exciting I expect."

UP NEXT:

The Hawks will be back at the 2023 NJCAA DII Men's Soccer Championship at 11 a.m. CT Tuesday against No. 8 Prairie State College at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona.

HAWKS HAPPENINGS:

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