DENVER – Junior Josh Drack (Chandler, Ariz.) and classmate Jacob Stensson (Stockholm, Sweden) both converted from the penalty spot, and Denver held the sixth-best scoring offense in the country to just one shot on target to book a spot in Saturday's Summit League Final with a 2-0 win over Oral Roberts on Thursday evening at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.
Denver will take on fourth-seeded Omaha in the Summit League Final at 2 p.m. MT on Saturday afternoon in the Mile High City. The two programs will meet in the final for the fourth-consecutive year. Denver has won two of the previous finals, while Omaha took their home final in 2017 on penalties. Saturday will mark the first time since 2010 that the three and the four seed meet in the Summit League Final.
Oral Roberts produced the first two chances of the opening 45 minutes, sliding a breakaway just wide of a charging Will Palmquist (Denver, Colo.) and heading a set-piece on target only to have it cleared off the line by junior striker Preston Judd (Henderson, Nev.).
The Pioneers quickly turned the tide in the 25th minute, taking the lead on Drack's spot kick, his fifth goal of the season and his second pk of the campaign. Judd got in-behind the Oral Roberts backline with a run down the right channel before getting tripped up inside the penalty area. The goal for Drack is the 11th of the transfer's collegiate career.
Judd created a couple more chances early in the second half, but Denver wasn't able to find its insurance goal until the 90th minute when Drack was robbed of his first career multi-goal match when he was football tackled by goalkeeper Miles Motakef to save the chance and force referee Calin Radosav to point to the spot with four seconds left on the clock. Stensson stepped up to the spot and chipped in his second penalty of the season.
Denver outshot Oral Roberts 11-5, including 5-1 on target. Oral Roberts took nine of the 17 corner kicks in the match.
Thursday marked the first time that Oral Roberts had been shutout since September 6th, its third game of the regular season.
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