The Gustavus men’s soccer stayed hot with a 1-0 win over #14 UC-Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon in Santa Cruz, Calif. Head coach Mike Middleton watched the UC-Santa Cruz soccer team defeat Cal Lutheran 4-1 on Friday, thinking that the Banana Slugs were one of the best NCAA Division III teams he’d seen in the past decade, stating, “to get the win against them was absolutely terrific.” Justin Eglseder scored the only goal of the match in the 35th minute to give Gustavus its fourth straight win. The Gusties are now 4-0 overall, while UC-Santa Cruz drops to 4-1.
For the fourth consecutive match, the Gustavus defense served up a shutout. The Gusties gave up a total of 10 shots in the match with nine coming in the second half. Only one shot got through to goalkeeper Brett Ylonen in the entire 90 minutes, a testament to the continued effort put forth by the Gustavus defense and midfield. Ylonen moved to 3-0 on the year with his third straight shutout.
“We played very well, dominating the first half especially, and limiting them to one shot one goal the whole game,” said Middleton. “We had a number of chances to take it to two nil, but at 1-0 the last few minutes were pretty tense.”
Justin Eglseder scored the lone goal of the match by knocking in a rebound off the keeper on a penalty kick at the 35:31 mark. The goal was Egleseder’s first of the season and third of the game-winning variety in his career. He now has four points on one goal and two assists on the year.
“The lads played really well. We had probably ten sets of parents with us, and the Gustie women’s team cheering us on, which was really great,” commented Middleton. “The crowd was large and boisterous. It was a fun game and I’m really proud of the lads.”
Gustavus finished with six shots in the match, five of which came in the first half.
The Gusties will wrap up their California trip tomorrow afternoon with a match against Cal Lutheran University on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 6:00 p.m. (Central).