Rodriguez lifts Yellowjackets to victory over Simpson

Sophomore Gio Rodriguez's second-half goal lifted the Yellowjackets to their third straight win.

Box Score

Yellowjackets 3, Simpson 2

After struggling in their season opener, the UW-Superior men's soccer team hoped to make it three straight wins when took on Simpson on Saturday afternoon.

Thanks to another big game from Gio Rodriguez (Rancho Cucamonga, Calif./Los Osos), the Yellowjackets head into Tuesday's home-opener having done exactly that. Rodriguez scored the game-winning goal and added an assist as UW-Superior swept both weekend games with a 3-2 victory in Moorhead, Minn.

UW-Superior got off to a strong start in the opening half as John Levenick (Champlin, Minn./Champlin) scored his first goal on an assist from Brian Grand (North Branch, Minn./North Branch) at 25:04 for a 1-0 Yellowjackets' lead.

The Storm came right back to even matters just over five minutes later when Nick Joslyn was assisted by Marcun Varnum at 30:25 to make it a 1-1 contest.

UW-Superior retook the lead at 39:14 as Erik Boese (New Berlin, Wis./Wisconsin Lutheran) scored on a feed from Rodriguez for a 2-1 edge.

Simpson refused to wilt, tying the contest up for a second time at 42:13 on Garrett Pochop's goal from Josh Dicken to send the game into halftime knotted up at 2-2.

Rodriguez finally put the Yellowjackets ahead for good at 50:34, taking a pass from Ryan Wisdom (Hayward, Wis./Hayward) and putting a shot past Storm goal tender Zach McEntee for a 3-2 UW-Superior advantage.

The Yellowjackets didn't manage a shot on goal the rest of the way as Simpson outshot UW-Superior 8-6 for the game.

Starting goal tender Zach Harwerth (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) proved unflappable in goal however, stopping four shots for pick up his second win of the season for the Yellowjackets.

Levenick paced UW-Superior with three shots while Kyle Kusy had three shots for Simpson in a losing effort.

The Yellowjackets (3-1, 0-0 WIAC) open their home slate on Tuesday when they host Augsburg at the NBC Spartan Sports Complex. Opening kickoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

Print Friendly Version