DE PERE, Wis. – The Gustavus men’s soccer team traveled to St. Norbert College on Saturday for its first road test of the season against Lake Forest and came away with a 1-0 victory. The Gusties improve to 1-0-1 overall, while the Foresters drop their first game of the season.
The Gusties started the game strong with a couple scoring chances early before Jack Knight (Jr., Verona, Wis.) found the back of the net 6:47 in. On a corner kick, Nate Rouaud (Sr., Vail, Colo.) headed the ball off the crossbar where Owen Johnson (Jr., Apple Valley) passed it sideways for Knight to knock in the goal on a half volley. The Gusties outshot the Foresters 4-2 in the opening 45 minutes.
Gustavus continued to control the ball in the second half with four more shots on goal. The best chance came on a goal by Alex Krumenauer (Jr., Otsego) that was disallowed due to the Gusties being slightly offsides.
“We are getting challenged in some different ways than we normally would right now, and that’s good for us,” Head Coach Tudor Flintham said. “Lake Forest was a good side, they took risks and were more expansive than we expected. That threw our game plan off. But our guys adjusted really well to some tactical changes we made. We feel like we could have got the second goal to kill the game off, but the disallowed goal and a few missed chances probably took some momentum away.”
Wesley Sanders (Sr., Urbandale, Iowa) earned his second straight shutout in goal, making one save. The Gustie defense stood tall and allowed just three shots in the game.
“Overall we have big positives to take away,” Flintham said. “Some guys played in nontraditional positions and did well. Some young guys got their first college minutes. And back-to-back clean sheets is a massive win for us. Wes is back at his best. Nate, Sam Just (Jr., Lakeville), Ethan Glissendorf (Jr., Sioux Falls), and Carlos Robles (So., Minneapolis) were also really solid.”
Gustavus continues play in De Pere at 1:30 p.m. Sunday against host St. Norbert.