ORANGE CITY, Iowa – The No. 21-ranked Northwestern College men's soccer team (14-2-1, 10-1 GPAC) earned the top-seed in this year's Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) men's soccer tournament and will play host to the No. 8-seed Mount Marty Lancers (6-8-1, 4-7 GPAC) Wednesday night.
 
Mount Marty is one of four teams on the season that have played an overtime match with the Raiders, as Northwestern holds a 3-0-1 record in overtime games this season. The Raiders lone win over a nationally-ranked squad came against No. 22-ranked Morningside back on September 22 in Orange City.
 
"Mount Marty is a dangerous opponent. They gave us a lot of trouble in our regular season matchup, so we will need to be focused and committed from the opening whistle," said head coach Dan Swier.
 
Regular Season Meeting
The two squads met in the regular season back on September 29 in Northwestern's first-ever game ranked inside the top-25 in the NAIA Coaches' Poll. The Lancers gave the Raiders all they could handle in hopes of spoiling the newly earned national ranking the Raiders had in front of their name.
 
Mount Marty took the early lead in the sixth minute, as the Lancers would hold onto the momentum the entire first half of play in Yankton, S.D. They would net their second goal in the 32^nd minute to take a 2-0 lead into the halftime break.
 
Immediately to start the second period, Johannes von Saldern (So., Jena, Germany/Otto Schott Gymnasium) put the Raiders on the board in the 47^th minute, cutting the Lancer lead in half at 2-1. In the 61^st minute, Luke Happer (Fr., Overland Park, Kan./Saint James Academy) would net the equalizer. Neither team could break the deadlock in the rest of the second half as the match would go to overtime.
 
Sophomore defender Adam De Boer (Orange City, Iowa/MOC-Floyd Valley) proved to be the hero, netting the game-winning goal with 12 seconds remaining in the second overtime period.
 
Ticket information
Gate will be charged at the NWC Soccer Complex this weekend as the GPAC men's soccer tournament gets under way.
 
Adults will be charged $10, K-12 students will be charged $3, and children under the Kindergarten age will have no charge. All GPAC students will receive free admittance to the matches with the showing of their institutional ID.
 
GPAC Tournament Schedule (home team bolded)
Quarterfinals – Wednesday, Nov. 3
No. 1-seed Northwestern vs. No. 8-seed Mount Marty (7:00 p.m., Orange City, Iowa)
No. 4-seed Morningside vs. No.5-seed Concordia (7:00 p.m., Sioux City, Iowa)
No. 3-seed Hastings vs. No. 6-seed Midland (7:00 p.m., Hastings, Neb.)
No. 2-seed Briar Cliff vs. No. 7-seed Jamestown (2:00 p.m., Sioux City, Iowa)
 
Semifinals – Saturday, Nov. 6
Winner of Northwestern/Mount Marty vs. Winner of Morningside/Concordia (Time/Location TBD)
Winner of Hastings/Midland vs. Winner of Briar Cliff/Jamestown (Time/Location TBD)
 
Championship – Thursday, Nov. 11
Winner of Semifinal #1 vs. Winner of Semifinal #2 (Location/Time TBD)

Game Information
Kickoff from the NWC Soccer Complex on the campus of Northwestern College is set for 7:00 p.m. The match can be streamed on nwcraiders.com, as well as live stats available. Links to both are above.
 
The winner of the match will face the winner of No. 5-seed Concordia (Neb.) and No. 4-seed Morningside on Saturday, November 6 with the highest remaining seed hosting the match.