NIC men tie with Chemeketa

North Idaho College freshman Rodger Bucknor scored two goals to help the Cardinals to a 3-3 tie against Chemeketa Community College Friday in the first men’s game of the Cardinal Classic at NIC.

The game consisted of back and forth scoring, with Chemeketa (Oregon) getting on the scoreboard first about 15 minutes into the first half.

Bucknor tied the game about nine minutes later.

Chemeketa then answered in the second half with a goal to take a 2-1 lead.

Bucknor made his presence felt again by tying the game at two about six minutes later. Freshman Jesse Bostrom delivered the pass to set Bucknor up for the goal.

“Toward the end, when we were kind of playing catch up, that’s when we really played our soccer,” NIC midfielder Christian Botuli said. “That’s when we dominated.”

After Chemeketa took the lead again to make the score 3-2, Botuli kicked the ball into the net off of an Adam Talley pass to tie the game at three with about 17:38 left in the game.