Daniel Barnes assesses the play. (Photo courtesy of Matt Berkner, Gustavus Sports Information)
ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s soccer team allowed four Wartburg College goals in the second half, erasing a 1-0 Gustie lead to suffer their second loss of the season Sunday afternoon at Gustie soccer field.
With the 4-1 victory, the Knights stay unbeaten and improve their record to 3-0-1, while the Gustavus record falls to 3-2-0 overall.
Prior to Gustavus taking a 1-0 lead in a good paced first period in which the shots read 5-4 in favor of Wartburg and corner kicks 3-2 in favor of Gustavus, the Knights took a step forward in the second period. After tying the game on a header off a corner kick at the 61st minute, Wartburg scored three consecutive goals, all within five minutes of each other.
“A game of two halves today,” said Head Coach Mike Middleton. “We were excellent in the first half, but completely ran out of gas second half. We had a tough game yesterday, and they played on Friday having the extra rest day. We were in complete control of the game, and playing very well but we hit the wall. A couple of injuries to our back four also didn’t help, and with those players out at least a week.”
Arthur Parens (Jr., Wayzata, Minn.) continued to prove to be the offensive threat for the Black and Gold, scoring the lone Gustie goal of the game. At the 14th minute mark, Parens made a great individual effort to elude several Wartburg defenders and put home his team-leading fourth goal of the season.
“There is lots of potential shown by the lads. A good weekend in terms of learning by the team, but not the results we wanted. We could do with a weeks rest! Two good results on the road last weekend, and reversed this weekend. We were not at our best yesterday, but were terrific for the first half here, so we know we can do it. We’ll take a look at where we are at, and now look forward to the conference play,” Middleton commented.
Gustavus heads into Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action on Wednesday as they travel to Northfield, Minn. to take on Carleton College.