St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s soccer team suffered a 1-0 defeat in heartbreaking, double-overtime fashion to Saint John’s University on Saturday afternoon at the Gustie Soccer Field. After 90 minutes of regulation and one 10-minute overtime session, Saint John’s midfielder Alex Niederloh scored the sudden death goal at the 103:35 mark to hand Gustavus its first loss in five matches. The Gusties drop to 8-2-0 overall and 2-1-0 in the the MIAC, while the Johnnies improve to 5-4-0 overall and 2-1-0 in the MIAC with the win.
With today’s loss, Gustavus sees its conference winning-streak come to an end at 17 matches dating back to a 3-0 loss to Carleton on Sept. 29, 2012. It is also the first time during head coach Mike Middleton’s tenure that the Gusties have allowed a golden goal in overtime.
“A disappointing result today, but you can’t win them all,” said Mike Middleton. “This is our first conference loss in a year and a bit, so it’s hard to be too down.”
“The game was very much as prescribed,” Middleton continued. “They were very physical – trying hard to knock us out of our style and game plan, then hopefully sneak a chance somewhere along the line. They did it
well and that is what transpired. A chance from a mistake or lucky bounce and that was all it took. We had more possession but didn’t create enough clear cut chances from that superiority in play.”
Both the Gusties and Johnnies recorded six shots in the opening half. The best Gustavus look of the opening 45 minutes came on a cross from Nick Kieser (Sr., Plymouth, Minn.) to a streaking Ryan Tollefsrud (Sr., Spearfish, S.D.) up the center cut of the box. Tollefsrud attempted to re-direct a header but was stopped by an in position Kevin Lebahn.
The second half saw Saint John’s with increased possession time and a 4-3 shots advantage, yet neither team could find the back of the net in regulation. After no shots were recorded in the first overtime session, it took 3:35 of the final overtime segment for Saint John’s to score. Rocky Harmon played the ball to Sam Newman, and Newman got it on the foot of Alex Niederloh. Niederloh was all alone behind the defense for the easy tap in.
Back in action for the first time in two matches, goalkeeper Brett Ylonen (Sr., Lake Elmo, Minn.) suffered the loss in a three-save effort. Kevin Lebahn earned the shutout win after coming up with a total of six saves.
“Saint John’s was all over our creative players and allowed them little time and space,” Middleton said. “Today’s loss is humbling but it will help us re-focus. My hope is that teams will not catch on to the way to play against us – robust in the tackle, get in your face, try to get us of our style and hope for a mistake to capitalize on. We need to learn to deal with it a bit better than today.”
The Gustavus Adolphus men’s soccer team will be back on the pitch Wednesday, Oct. 1 when it hosts Saint Mary’s at 4:00 p.m. on the Gustie Soccer Field.