MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s soccer team completed a 1-0 shutout victory over Concordia on Saturday afternoon, improving to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
“Today was probably the best we’ve played all season,” Head Coach Tudor Flintham said. “We felt like in terms of our general play and how we built to get into the final third we were excellent. And while we were playing against another defensively compact team we always felt the goal would come.”
After a scoreless first half that saw the Gusties outshoot the Cobbers 8-4, Léon Equinet (Fy., Bonn, Germany) recorded his first collegiate goal at the 71:28 mark, assisted by Matt Gibbons (So., Minneapolis, Minn.) which proved to be the game-winner.
“Léon getting his first college goal is a big bonus and well deserved for his performances so far,” Flintham said. “When you hit the woodwork a few times and then leave the ball sitting on their goal-line, you start to wonder if it’s going to be one of those days. But after about 10 minutes through the second half you could just see that it was a matter of time. After we scored the team was really professional about the way they finished the job. They shut the doors and just made sure we got out of there with the three points. Another clean sheet was something we also felt was important to get from the game, and not conceding a goal for 251 minutes is definitely something we want to build on. We’ve become a pretty good team in our own box, and just need to retain that while adjusting what we do on the other side of things.”
Anders Severson (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) posted his second shutout in a complete game effort. He made two saves. The Gusties outshot the Cobbers 16-7.
“Today was a really solid all around team performance and it’s hard to single out individuals, but I will say that our keeper and back five were outstanding today,” Flintham said. “They controlled the whole game with and without the ball.”
Gustavus next travels to La Crosse, Wis. on Wednesday to take on Viterbo at 4 p.m.