SAINT PETER, Minn. – Cole Schwartz (Sr., Jakarta, Indonesia) tallied a hat trick Sunday as the Gustavus men’s soccer team cruised to a 7-0 win over Bethel. The Gusties are now 2-0 overall, while the Royals drop to 1-3.
“We were good today,” Head Coach Tudor Flintham said. “They could have scored early and we got a favorable call that helped us in the first minutes, but from there the boys were pretty clinical and scored some great team goals. We thought we might stress them from set plays, but honestly it was goals in combination that we were most pleased with. We are slowly getting up to speed, and the willingness to run off each other and be dynamic in our running and combo play was a nice progression on the day.”
Schwartz scored what proved to be the game-winning goal 9:17 into the contest on a header, crossed in from Owen Johnson (Fy., Apple Valley). Trace Dobson (Jr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) scored on a shot inside the box that hit the far post in the 31st minute, assisted by Nicholas Leach (Jr., Sioux Falls, S.D.). Tim Whiteman (Jr., Brainerd) then gave the Gusties a 3-0 lead three minutes later on a crossing pass from Nick Katzman (So., Minneapolis). Jared Hecht (So., Apple Valley) got the second assist on Whiteman’s goal and the Gusties led by three at halftime.
Not even four minutes into the second frame, Schwartz scored his second goal of the game with the help of Johnson and keeper Wesley Sanders (So., Urbandale, Iowa). Five minutes later, Schwartz completed the hat trick with assists from Johnson and Dobson. David Jansen (Jr., Roetgen, Germany) scored an unassisted goal in the 72nd minute and Katzman finished out the scoring with a goal in the 85th minute, assisted by Yahya Bashir (Fy., Minneapolis).
The Gusties outshot the Royals 28-6 with Sanders making three saves in the first 67 minutes and Latham Kleckner (S0., Golden, Colo.) tallying two saves in the final 23 minutes.
“Cole did Cole things, his instincts are just second to none in terms of when to arrive in dangerous spaces,” Flintham said. “But it was awesome to see some different guys score, and the goalkeepers and the unit should feel happy with how they navigated the game. Overall a nice professional win and we’ll see if we can get one percent better next week.”
Gustavus travels to Saint Mary’s next Sunday for a 3 p.m. contest in Winona, Minn.