LUTHER SOCCER - MOMENTS OF THE DECADE
It’s the spring of 2020. I’m an assistant coach for Luther Men’s and Women’s Soccer. COVID has shut down training. Our players are back home. The world is desperate for a distraction—and so are Luther Soccer fans. So we created a bracket of the top Luther Soccer moments from 2010-2020 and let fans vote for the moment of the decade. It was the most fun I’ve ever had writing social copy. This is how it started:
We drip-fed the moments to our fans on Instagram and asked them to vote on our story. Over the course of a few weeks, the Luther Soccer Moment of the Decade was decided. Here are some of my favorite moments and their captions:
Saul Rosales vs St. Thomas (2012): In the game of football, there are few things better than a clean strike on the ball. Leather meets lace and the ensuing thud is euphonic. Friends: this Saul Rosales strike is Clorox clean. This strike is sing-happy-birthday-while-you-wash-your-hands clean. This strike is Mr. Clean. After falling behind 2-0, a barrage of second-half goals saw the Norse come back to top their regional rivals 4-2. Legend has it, if you listen carefully on a calm night in The Valley, you can still hear this particular thud from the two-time All-Conference man echoing in the breeze.
Credits: Me, Myself, and I
Martin Stalberger v Wartburg (2013): Sometime years before this goal ever happened, we suspect there was a younger version of Martin Stalberger striking a tattered football against a fence in the backyard of his childhood home. A parent pokes their head out the back door and calls him inside—“Martin! Dinner’s ready!”—and in Young Martin’s mind, the countdown begins. “10 seconds left on the clock, Stalberger’s on the ball. He shimmies! He swerves! He shoots….GOALLLL!” The imaginary crowd goes bonkers. His T-shirt comes over his head. He’s running circles around his backyard like a whirling dervish and only after he’s sufficiently gassed does he breathlessly barrel inside…We suspect this happened because, in some way, shape, or form, this has happened to every young boy or girl learning to love the game. It’s not often, though, you get to turn those imagined scenarios into reality…Fast forward some time into the future and the Norse have a corner kick with 10 seconds left in a 0-0 game. Only a win will secure a conference title. Martin Stalberger is making his way into the Wartburg box. The rest, as they say, is history.
Brunno Colon vs Dominican (2018): It was a scene worthy of Liam Neeson voice-over. Late in the second round of the National Tournament, the score was 2-2. The weather: well below freezing. The pitch: a slab of something just softer than concrete. The tension: elastic-band taut, and threatening to snap… Enter Brunno Colon. With 90 seconds left in the game, winger Rafa Broseghini finds himself one-on-one with a Dominican defender. He shifts the ball onto his right foot and sends a cross into the box—a bounce, a mis-clearance, and a Colon half-volley. Pandemonium ensues. Arms pump and hands wave and the decibels rise to NASA-rocket-launch levels at NASA-rocket-launch speeds. A masked man, clad in black, comes running halfway onto the field by way of the Luther bench. A fan hops the fence to join the players in celebration. For the first time since 2011, Luther was moving on to the Sweet Sixteen.
Dane Huinker vs Lake Forest (2013): How can a goal happen so quickly and yet so slowly all at once? In the span of only ten seconds, Huinker wins the ball, combines with teammate Brock Arend, faces up the opposition, shimmies, and as the defenders are put on their heels, so too, it seems, is Time itself — recovering only when Huinker’s looping shot meets the Lake Forest net. Then, a celebration so casual (sip-my-tea casual, walk-in-the-park casual, another-day-at-the-office casual) you would think it was merely a Sunday League match, and not the NCAA National Tournament. The Norse would go on to win 3-0.
Martell vs. St John’s (2013): Long; Flowing; Methodical—three words to describe both this passing sequence and the hair of the eventual goalscorer. Down 2-1 at the break, the Norse opened up the 2nd half by stringing together 17 passes, culminating in a cheeky front-post finish from Logan Martell. The Norse would go on to win 3-2.
Aidan O’Driscoll vs Knox (2016): A turf field in Austin, MN, was deemed an adequate stand-in for the Valley, after flooding in Decorah had forced a venue change. The score was 1-1. With under ten minutes left to play, winger Andrew Avram picks up the ball on the left. Avram, ever-elusive, teases his defender with the now-you-see-me, now-you-don’t gusto of an illusionist, before sliding a cross toward goal. A slight deflection takes it away from lurking Norse forward Jon Gednalske, and out toward the top of the box… Now, we have it on good authority that when that ball spilled toward him, midfielder Aidan O’Driscoll’s eyes popped so far out of his head he took on the likeness of Scrat, the indefatigable squirrel of Ice Age fame. Here was the bouncing ball with just the right spin that every player dreams of lining up for a volley… Unlike Scrat, O’Driscoll found his acorn, and promptly belted it into the upper-90. Norse win 2-1.
Jason Block vs St Olaf (2011): In an NCAA Tournament second-round matchup, the Norse hosted St. Olaf, a trip to the Sweet Sixteen on the line. Having lost 1-0 in Northfield earlier the same season, Luther was aiming to right a wrong—and what better stage to do so. In the second half, a free kick was lumped into the box, corralled by one James Garcia-Prats, who maneuvers the ball toward the end-line, slipping a cross between two Olaf defenders with slide-rule precision. At the edge of the six-yard box, a collision sends the ball looping into the air and into the sightline of Jason Block. It takes a leap and a balletic mid-air adjustment (think of a Simon Biles routine, unchoreographed) to turn the ball beyond the Olaf keeper’s flailing arms. Block holds his hands aloft in celebration—the universal sign of triumph. A game-winner, and Luther are on to the Sweet Sixteen.
Ben Keller vs Loras (2019): All-American Ben Keller scores this game-winner with two minutes remaining in the ARC Tournament Championship. The Norse go 2-1 up, and the blue half of the Rock Bowl is sent into delirium. As for the goal itself, this is football at its most efficient. This is the IKEA how-to manual for assembling a belter. Each little piece is essential. You need the organization of Steven Johnson; you need the sturdiness of Marcos Vila; you need Colin Hughes to turn the screw; and you need Keller to apply the finishing touches. Skip a step and you’re left with a faulty coffee table, but put all the pieces together and you’re left with something that will brighten the place and will withstand the test of time. One thing is for certain, though: your new coffee table won’t warrant a celebration like that.
Marcos Vila vs Loras (2018): There are eerie similarities between Marcos Vila’s 2018 game-winning goal at the Rock Bowl and Ben Keller’s a year later. Both feature a well-worked build-up; a moment of cheek; top-class finishes—and both come with two minutes left to play. In 2018, Colin Hughes mops up a Loras mistake and suddenly Keller’s on the ball, flanked by Vila and Conference Defensive MVP Luke Von Eschen… If you’re wondering what the Defensive MVP is doing in the opposition final third with two minutes left to go, you don’t know Luke Von Eschen. Alongside the crunch of a tackle or an aerial duel, Luke loved a jaunt toward goal. And thank goodness he did—because Keller plays him the ball and what he does with it is virtuoso, flicking it toward Vila in a manner so dainty and delicate you’d think he was gently ferrying a piece of priceless china over rocky terrain. He had brought the famous words of Albert Einstein to life: “Genius is taking the complex and making it simple.” Vila pauses to size up the pass and with the composure and elegance of a Spaniard, he dispatches the ball into the Duhawk net. On to the Tournament.
Carson Davenport vs Ohio Wesleyan (2019): Ah, spot kicks—football’s pressure cooker; the ultimate mind-game; the Wild West quick-draw gunslinging battle that can break hearts or shape heroes. And the place where Carson Davenport shines…In the second round of the national tournament, the Norse dispatched UW-Superior 4-2 on penalties. (Davenport saved two.) In the Sweet Sixteen a game later, a 0-0 scoreline after full-time meant the Norse were, once again, faced with the gaping maw of the penalty shootout. This time, though, with experience on their side. Of course, there will always be the mystique of the swaying hips—is he employing distraction? Or is it something more, lulling his foes into a hypnotic trance of false confidence, perhaps?—but it would be a mistake to let that overshadow the steely mentality of the Luther keeper, the clinical nature with which the kick-takers went about their work, and the team’s refusal to lose. Another two saves from Davenport sees the Norse through to the Elite Eight for the second year in a row.
Broseghini vs MAC (2018): A BRAZILIAN BOMB; A BROSEGHINI BELTER— the alliterative possibilities are endless, folks. In a tightly contested regional matchup in 2018, Rafa spent most of the first half rooting through his considerable attacking arsenal before unleashing this howitzer on the Macalester goal en route to a Norse win. What makes it even more special? Those two lovely supporters he celebrates with on the sidelines are his parents—all the way from beautiful Rio de Janeiro to watch their boy play.