The Red Raiders lost a nail biter Saturday evening in a hard fought GPAC Semi-Final match against Concordia University 2-1.  

The scoring starting in the 12th minute after Marcelo Hernandez was able to pick up a loose ball on the goal line in the Red Raider goal box and was able to turn and pick out Lewis Rathbone on an angled ball on the ground for a near post bash. The goal by Rathbone caught keeper Matt Scott offguard and blistered the net for his 12th goal of the year. 

The Raiders seemed to settle in after the Bulldog goal and were able to generate some chances and also played well defensively against a strong Bulldog attack. 

The second half started off fast and furious seeing the Raiders look to get on the board and get even. They did so in an unconventional way in the 70th minute.

The Raiders played a long diagonal ball in the box where Jack Bennett, the Bulldog keeper, and Morgan Newby both went for the ball. Bennett collected the ball cleanly with no contact with Newby but decided to turn and hit Newby with his forearm. It resulted in a penalty kick for the Raiders and a yellow card for Bennett. Limmer stepped up and bashed home the penalty for his 15th goal of the year.

The 1-1 scoreline did not hold for long as the 71st minute rolled around and saw Concordia get through the Raider back line with 3 players and the Raiders were in scramble mode. Toby Down received a through ball and was in on goal to the left of Matt Scott and Connor Tupper was able to recover and block the initial shot by Down but he was able to follow up his own rebound and hit another near post finish on Scott to give the Bulldogs the lead.

Northwestern was pushing hard for another game tying goal and earned two corners in the last 10 minute and kept the ball in the attacking half, pushing and pushing but to no avail.

"The guys fought valiantly against a great team tonight," commented Head Coach Dan Swier "It is always hard to give up a goal when there were many errors and mistake that lead to it. We knew that if we did everything well it would be a hard game against a good squad and tonight was just not our night."

The Raiders finish the season 12-6-2 overall, their second 12-win season in the past three seasons.