The Gustavus men’s soccer team completed its fall break trip to California with a 1-1 record after losing to #4 UC-Santa Cruz 2-0 on Sunday afternoon and defeating California State-East Bay 2-0 on Monday afternoon. Gustavus is now 13-2-1 overall.
On Sunday, the Gusties and Banana Slugs battled to a scoreless first half tie. UC-Santa Cruz broke the scoreless tie with a goal in the 47th minute. Both teams registered a couple of different good scoring opportunities in the second half. For Gustavus, Mike Butterworth hit the crossbar with a header and later Alex Groth found the right post with a shot. UC-Santa Cruz extended its lead to 2-0 on a penalty kick in the 72nd minute. Tyler Garry suffered the loss in the nets for the Gusties. He made six saves. The Banana Slugs are the first team to score more than one goal in a game against Gustavus this season and they snapped the Gusties seven match win streak.
On Monday, the Gusties got on the board early as Jeffrey Johnson sent a ball through the last line of the California-East Bay defense that forward Mike Butterworth ran on to and beat the Pioneer goaltender. The goal, in the seventh minute, gave Gustavus a 1-0 lead.
In the 87th minute, the Gusties picked up their second goal when defender Flynn Stewart-Franzen sent a long ball into the California-East Bay box that ricocheted off the head of a Pioneer defender and into the net for an own goal.
Tyler Garry picked up the win in the nets for Gustavus and recorded his 10th shutout of the season.
Gustavus will travel to Minneapolis on Wednesday night for a very important MIAC matchup against Augsburg. Game time is 7:30 pm. The Gusties are currently in a first place tie with Saint John’s at 7-1-0 (14 points), while Augsburg is in third place with a record of 5-1-2 (12 points).