by Blake Theisen / Sports Director / @btheisen24

The St. Cloud Tech Tigers elevated themselves into third place in the Central Lakes Conference Table on Tuesday night after downing the Rocori Spartans 4-0.

In a methodical first half, Tech dominated possession of the ball and flustered Rocori goalkeeper Luis Lopez to the tune of 16 shots. In the 17th minute, senior attacker Khadar Abdi managed to find the ball amidst a slew of red and white jerseys and smacked a low line drive into the bottom right corner to give Tech the opening lead. Tech finished the first 40 minutes with 16 shot attempts to just 3 for Rocori.

Tech continued their possession dominance in the second half while also pushing the pace. St. Cloud poured on three goals during a 10 minute stretch where Rocori looked allergic to the ball. Liam O’Donnell, in the 46th minute, found the back of the net from 25 yards out after Lopez scrambled to make numerous saves on Abdi and Sogui Hissein. Then in the 51st minute, it was Sadam Yussuf capitalizing after Rocori turned the ball over on a goal kick not realizing that a defender was down a knee tying his shoe. Literal moments later, Tech recorded another takeaway, and Pablo Iribarren pummeled a ball into the upper 90 from just inside the box.

The Spartans mustered a few late game opportunities, but Tech senior keeper Nicholas Lalonde steered away all 6 shot attempts and earned a clean sheet.

The Tigers maintained dominant possession throughout the entirety of the match and seemingly never allowed Rocori to enter their attacking third. The Tech backline of Liam O’Donnell, Gavin Fenstad, and Lukas O’Donnell never allowed the Spartan strikers to win a race to a loose ball. The trio perhaps were the stars of the game for Tech.

With the victory, Tech moves to 3-1-1 and snaps a 2 game winless streak while Rocori falls to 3-3. The Tigers return to action on Thursday “on the road” against St. Cloud Apollo at 7:00. You can catch that action on our sister station, 97.5 RadioX.