SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The Gustavus men’s soccer team battled No. 4-ranked St. Thomas to a 1-1 double overtime draw Saturday evening. The Gusties move to 5-1-1 overall and 2-0-1 in the MIAC, while the Tommies move to 5-1-1 overall and 1-0-1 in the league.
“Honestly, the guys were absolutely devastated after the game,” Head Coach Tudor Flintham said. “First and foremost because we lost a really important teammate for the season. 88 seconds from the end of the game David Jansen put his body on the line, made a massive block, but seriously injured himself. In large part we’ll be playing for him for the rest of the season.
“As far as the result goes, the guys are also feeling like we should have come out with more. The point is one we’ll take but we know full well that we could have and probably should have won. Their keeper made one of the best saves I’ve seen in Division III soccer in OT and their goal was from our sloppy mistake. We can’t be giving up goals like that. We’ll take the positives but we’ll be playing with a chip on our shoulder knowing that we let one go today.”
Will Richards (Jr., Hudson, Wis.) scored the Gusties’ lone goal of the game in the 26th minute. Matt Gibbons (So., Minneapolis, Minn.) fired a corner kick into the box where Richards sent it into the back of the net for his second goal of the season. With 3:36 remaining in the first half, St. Thomas answered with a goal after a second chance opportunity.
The remaining 68:36 of regulation and double overtime went scoreless. The match proved to be physical with two yellow cards on St. Thomas and four on the Gusties. Two were called on Gibbons, warranting a red card and ejection from the game forcing Gustavus to play a man down for the final 10:14.
Anders Severson (Sr., Woodbury, Minn.) finished his complete game effort in goal with four saves. St. Thomas outshot the Gusties 12-10 in a defensive showing.
“Overall we know that we did some things really well,” Flintham said. “They changed their entire system for us and initially we were caught out by the amount of long channel balls they hit. Usually they like to play out a little more. So we’ll take their adjust as a compliment that showed we’re one of the top teams in the region, too. We saw some challenges today… to lose one teammate to a broken leg, and play OT down a man for a really harsh dismissal, we’ll accept the point and hopefully move on to bigger and better things.”
Gustavus next hosts St. Olaf at 4 p.m. Tuesday.