Game Information:
Date: Sunday, October 25
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Location: Duluth, Minn. | Saints Field
Playing Surface: Field Turf
Live Coverage: Video/Stats
SAINT PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s soccer team will head north on Sunday to take on the College of St. Scholastica in the Gusties’ final non-conference game of the season. The game will take place at Saints Field at 2:30 p.m. Gustavus brings a 7-4-3 overall record into Duluth, while the Saints come into the contest at 13-2-1 overall.
Gustavus is most recently coming off its highest offensive output of the season this past Monday afternoon as it defeated Bethany Lutheran College 7-0 in non-conference play. In the process, Eli Bjerk (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.) posted three assists to tie the program record for most assists in a game.
Sam Leske (Sr., Hampton, Minn.) scored what proved to be the game-winning goal at the 8:09 mark, assisted by Matt Murakami (So., Eden Prairie, Minn.). Leske’s goal was the first of his career. Patrick Roth (Jr., Stillwater, Minn.) then gave the Gusties a 2-0 lead in the 21st minute on Bjerk’s first assist. Less than a minute later, Roth found the back of the net once again on another assist from Bjerk. Arthur Parens (Fy., Wayzata, Minn.) gave the Black and Gold a five-goal lead on a pair of goals within a minute of each other in the 34th and 35th minutes. Matt Ouren (Fy., North Mankato, Minn.) assisted on Parens’ first goal, while Murakami tallied the assist on the second. After 45 minutes of play the Gusties led 5-0.
In the second half, Austin Gaffney scored his first goal of the season in the 49th minute. The score came on a corner kick by Bjerk for his record-tying third assist of the game. The final goal of the game also came on a corner kick, this time from Konnor Tranoris (Sr., Des Moines, Iowa) with Patrick Leach (Sr., Sioux Falls, S.D.) scoring the goal.
“A good performance today from the lads,” said Coach Mike Middleton after the game. “It’s always nice to put a few goals in the net. We moved the ball nicely at times, which was very pleasing. We looked solid at the back, the midfield looked creative, and the forwards looked pretty incisive. They also put in a shift in terms of work-rate, which is always nice to see.”
St. Scholastica is most recently coming off a 1-1 tie to Carleton College last Sunday in Dultuh. The Knights’ Trent Elmore played a ball into the box that was headed in by Sam Hayward to give Carleton a 1-0 lead just nine minutes into the game. However, the Saints came out more aggressively after halftime and just 1:15 into the second half, Jonny Harkin took a pass from Kyle Farrar and turned it into a goal, tying the game at 1-1, a score that would hold for the remainder of the contest.
The Saints come into the contest at No. 1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) standings and are unbeaten in their past 84 UMAC regular season games. St. Scholastica’s last loss came at the University of Minnesota, Morris on October 3, 2009. The Saints are led in scoring by senior defender Tom Corcoran who has tallied 34 points this season off of 15 goals and four assists. Sophomore goalie Sandy Davidson-Hunt has collected 41 saves while posting a 10-2-1 record between the posts.
Today’s meeting will be the 20th between Gustavus and St. Scholastica in men’s soccer. The Gusties hold the advantage in the all-time series with a 14-3-2 record against the Saints. When these two teams last met, Gustavus earned a 3-0 win on Sept. 3, 2014 in St. Peter.