Sean Sendelbach’s first collegiate goal gave the Gustavus men’s soccer team a 1-0 non-conference win over Loras on Sunday afternoon in St. Peter, Minn. The win extended the Gusties unbeaten string to six and improved its overall record to 6-3-3.
Sendelbach’s goal at the 11:46 mark was a rebound goal off a shot by Brian Simons that rolled onto the foot of Sendelbach who one-timed it into the lower right corner of the net. Coach Middleton described the gamewinner, “Kyle Sadler sent a nice cross to Simons and Brian showed great poise to chest the ball down, beat a defender and shoot under pressure. Sean was quick to read the situation and move into position to score the goal. It was a great sequence.”
Gustavus continued to pressure Loras the rest of the half and put several quality shots on goal including a shot by Jackson Zoellner that hit the crossbar, but the Gusties were unable to add to their lead.
Neither team was able to establish much momentum in the second half as Gustavus battled to hold on to its lead and Loras pressed to try and score the equalizer. Loras out-shot the Gusties 3-2 in the final 45 minutes, but was unable to put a quality shot on net allowing Gustavus to claim the 1-0 victory.
The Gusties out-shot the Duhawks 14-5 in the contest. Gustavus goalkeeper Luke Strom made one save and registered the shutout victory. Loras goalkeeper Dan Wickman recorded six saves.
Gustavus now enters a key stretch where it faces two regionally rated opponents in the next week including Macalester (#4) in St. Paul on Wednesday and UW-Whitewater (#1) in St. Peter on Sunday. Middleton commented on the upcoming schedule, “This is a really exciting period for us. We are playing well and very much looking forward to the next few games to see where we stand against some of the top teams in our region.”