DECORAH, Iowa – The Gustavus men’s soccer team suffered its first setback of the season in a 3-0 loss Friday night at Luther. The Gusties move to 2-1 overall, while the Norse improve to 4-0.
“We told the guys after that they needed this game and what they will learn from it,” Head Coach Turdor Flintham said. “Humility is ultimately understanding that you aren’t the finished article and a few of us needed to see that today, and recognize that a diligent work ethic and focus aren’t optional if you want to achieve excellence.”
Luther scored what proved to be the game-winning goal 8:33 into the match on a header goal. The Norse upped their lead less than a minute later on a shot from midfield. And in the 15th minute, the home squad scored its final goal of the game on a shot from directly in front of the net.
“It was a crazy first 15 minutes or so,” Flintham said. “We started really well and were dominating the opening minutes. We miss essentially an open goal and then they score with their first chance of the game. Before our guys could regain their composure its 3-0 in six minutes.”
Despite the early goals, the Gusties settled down defensively and allowed only six more shots the rest of the game. The Norse outshot the Gusties 9-5.
Matt Bateman (Sr., Savage, Minn.) took his first loss of the season in a complete-game effort with two saves.
“It was important to play a lot of guys against a top class team before the conference starts, and Luther is exactly that,” Flinthams said. “They’ve been building toward this season specifically and have a really gifted senior class. Obviously you see that when three of them punished us with a quality moment of skill and experience.
“I am sure they’d admit that they got a little fortune for the first two goals, but the reality is that they were much better on the night and we weren’t careful enough in the details. The guys understand that they didn’t hit a consistently acceptable level this evening. We still need to be far more clinical in both boxes and the guys are already desperate to put it right on Sunday. The game cant come soon enough.”
Gustavus stays in Iowa and travels to Wartburg for a 6 p.m. match Sunday.