TAHLEQUAH -- For the first time in program history, Northeastern State men's soccer will play in the spring months. The
RiverHawks host the Crimson Storm of Southern Nazarene Friday night at 6:30 p.m. to open a six-match Great American Conference schedule. The game will be played on Gable Field at Doc Wadley Stadium due to DeLoache Field conditions following the winter weather.
First touches
1. The
RiverHawks finished with an 11-8 overall record and were 9-5 in GAC play in the fall of 2019. They have finished with a winning record for three-straight seasons.
2. Of those returning is leading goal scorer Flynn
Semmerling, top minute
getters in
Ben Watson and Ryan
McCully, along with Tom
Singhgolden, who had 12 points in his first season with the
RiverHawks. The program returns seven of its top-11 minute
getters and 62 of its 80 points (77.5 percent).
3. In the net, NSU will be new.
Niklas Kirhoff is the lone returner and has played 45 minutes collegiately. Brett
Ekperouh, a 6-foot, 5-inch transfer from Walsh, tended goal in the exhibition match at ORU earlier this spring.
Josh Elliot, the son of former NSU coach Brian Elliot, is a freshman.
4. NSU is picked to finish third in the conference this season behind fellow GAC affiliate members Rogers State and Fort Hays State. Southern Nazarene was chosen sixth.
5. The Crimson Storm holds an 29-18-2 series advantage over the RiverHawks but NSU has won the previous 13. In Tahlequah, NSU has won the last 10 dating back to 1996. The Crimson Storm were 2-15-1 and had an 1-12-1 mark a season ago under third-year head coach Trevor Harmon.
6. Head coach Rob
Czlonka is in his tenth season at the helm of the
RiverHawks program. NSU has seen much success under
Czlonka, having qualified four times for the NCAA Tournament, including two trips to the NCAA Elite 8 (2015, 2017) and two trips to the NCAA Sweet 16 (2014, 2018). He surpassed 100 career wins in 2019 with a 4-2 victory over SNU.
7. General admission bleacher seating on the east side of the stadium will be allowed on every third row to adhere to physical distancing recommendations.
Up next: NSU travels to Rogers State a week later, March 5, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m.
