The Minnesota Thunder survived the challenge of Nebraska’s 402 with a 3-2 victory to advance to the second round.
402, named after Eastern Nebraska’s telephone area code, struck first when former Thunder player Johnny Torres assisted on Andrei Gotsmanov’s 12th minute goal. Minnesota nearly tied the score twice shortly after, but attempts from Brian Cvilikas and Rod Dyachenko could not cross the goal line.
Cvilikas finally broke through in the 31st minute when he drilled home a pass from Dyachenko. Leonel Saint-Preux gave the Thunder a halftime lead when he chipped a shot over 402 goalkeeper Ross Kaufmann. The USL-1 club increased their lead in the 47th minute when Cvilikas scored his second of the game, when Saint-Preux fed him for the score. Just ten minutes later 402 closed the gap back to one as Tomy Schmitz sent a 25-yard shot past goalkeeper Nicolas Platter.
Towards the end of the game, 402 were reduced to ten men when Schmitz was shown his marching orders for a hard foul on Saint-Preux. Minnesota will host the Chicago Fire PDL club next Tuesday.
Starting Lineups:
Minnesota: Nic Platter; Quavas Kirk, Chris Clements, Jon Greenfield, Andrew Peterson; Lawrence Olum, Jeremiah Bass, Rod Dyachenko (Ricardo Sanchez 66); Melvin Tarley (Geoffrey Myers 66), Brian Cvilikas, Leonel Saint-Preux (Marco Terminesi 89) [not used: Matt Van Oekel; Brian Kallman; Dan O’Brien; Dave Weiler]
402: Ross Kaufan; Matt Thomas (Andrew Watts 88), Chris Brunt (Matt Wadleigh 45), Ryan Junge, Jay Mims, Tim Walters, Tim Bohnenkamp (Jace Peters 45), Andre Gotsmanov, Joshua Moran, Tony Schmitz [not used: Daniel Padilla; Adam Banister, Alex Stica, Damien Westfield]
