Allison Fajt – Staff Writer

The Gustavus men’s soccer team suffered a disappointing loss Saturday Oct. 16 against St. Olaf at Northfield. With a 2-4 final score the chance to win the regular season MIAC was gone. Yet Sunday they redeemed themselves with a 1-0 win in an intense home game against UW Whitewater.
“It’s a little difficult playing back to back games but we’ve done it before and it took the whole team to push through the tiredness and exhaustion we all had,” Junior Ethan Glissendorf said.

“Tudor tries to make it feel like an NCAA tournament weekend because he believes that we can do great things this year and thinks that that’s the level we should be at. So it’s a little tough but it’s where we want to be and it’s good practice,” Senior Trace Dobson said.
In their first game the Gusties dominated in the first half against St. Olaf with Senior Matthew Gibbons scoring 16:57 in with an assist from Senior Cole Schwartz. The Oles quickly tied the game 1-1 a few minutes later. Yet Junior Otis Anderson brought the score to 2-1 with a penalty kick ending the first half in the lead.
“We made some mistakes but at the end of the day we just didn’t come with our A game, if we all came with our A game we would’ve put them away. And if we came stronger off in the second half we would’ve done better as well,” Sophomore Alexander Krumenauer said.
While dominatinating in the first period, in period two the Gusties lost their winning energy and St. Olaf took the lead. With a switch from 9-4 shots on goal in the first to 7-16 in the second, the Gusties couldn’t compete with the Oles who now remain undefeated in the MIAC. Junior Goalie Wesley Sanders had 5 saves in the game.
“We just didn’t keep our momentum going in the second half and our energy kinda fell off a bit and we just coasted in the second half of the game and thought we had the win,” Glissendorf said.
“The loss against St. Olaf puts us in a bit of a tough spot because it pretty much secures the title for them for the regular season. So it makes us more motivated come playoff time to get our revenge against them. We also gotta win now to try to get the national bid if possible,” Dobson said.

Tensions were high the next day in the game against Whitewater Warhawks, the ref gave out multiple yellow cards, one to Anderson and one to Gibbons, and then a red card for Glissendorf. Still the Gusties persevered and won the game.
“There was a big touch by a player and I went to challenge him for it. I ran with him and he ran into the back of me and we ended up going into each other; I jumped and went to the side and the ref gave me a red because they thought I went studs up into the players leg,” Glissendorf said.
“We both came off a loss and wanted a win and this would help both teams with their national ranking and their at-large bid for the national tournament. So both teams had something big to lose and something big to win,” Glissendorf said.
Though it was a low scoring game the Gusties kept control over the ball with 15-4 shots on goal. While First-year Goalie Egan Bedwell had one save in goal. With the first half of the game scoreless the Gusties had to make their move. Finally Dobson assisted by Sophomore Owen Johnson scored the only goal of the game in the second half.
“I’m talking about one of the best players on the field when we played St. Olaf. And not to mention after absolutely putting in a shift against Olaf, running on tired legs Trace Dobson gets the only goal against Whitewater,” Senior Scott Heinen said.
“I think we just need to improve our intensity in games and work as one unit instead of separately like we did the last couple of games,” Glissendorf said. And with the regular season coming to an end with only four games left, the team will be preparing for the MIAC playoffs and to get a bid for the national tournament.