Mike Butterworth makes a move around a defender.
Matt Strom defends a ball played by UC-Santa Cruz.
In a physical match that featured 24 fouls and three yellow cards, Gustavus fell to UC-Santa Cruz 3-2 in St. Peter Saturday morning. UC-Santa Cruz scored two of the three goals in a six-minute span in the second half to take a 3-1 lead the Gusties would be unable to overcome. The three goals allowed were the most goals given up by a Gustavus defense since 2001. Gustavus dropped to 12-3-1 overall, while UC-Santa Cruz improved to 13-4.
The Banana Slugs struck first at 13:49 on a scramble in front of the net. Gustavus goalkeeper Trevor Brown (Madison, Wis.) was pulled out of the penalty box to make the initial save, but was unable to control the rebound. After a series of shots and saves, UC-Santa Cruz’s Colin Ainsworth kicked a shot that barely trickled to the back of the net. Gustavus would strike before the end of the first half to tie the match on a Dane Obermeyer (Los Alamos, NM) penalty kick in the 42nd minute.
UC-Santa Cruz responded quickly in the second half scoring its second goal on a Harry Abraham header from a corner kick by Davin Kono. Six minutes later Abraham would pick up his second goal of the day on a rebound after another scramble in front of the net. Gustavus made a late charge when Ryan Beduhn (St. Cloud, Minn.) scored his third goal of the season at 87:53 with Bret Vander Streek (Pella, Iowa) getting the assist, cutting the Banana Slugs lead to one. However, the Gusties came up short in the end. UC-Santa Cruz goalkeeper Jared Wheeler made four saves, while allowing two goals. Gustavus goalkeeper Trevor Brown allowed three goals and made one save to earn his first loss of the season, bringing his record to 9-1-1.
Gustavus will wrap up conference play this week starting with a match against Macalester Tuesday, October 23 at 4:00 pm in St. Peter.