Staff Writer- Alayna Boe
Ending their regular season with a victory, the Gustavus Men’s Soccer Team is seeking to find its way to the MIAC Conference championship. The last regular-season game for these men was on the road in Winona, Minnesota. This 3-0 sweep was against the Saint Mary’s University Cardinals on Saturday, Nov. 1st. Winning this game was quintessential in the road to the MIAC and locked Gustavus in the No. 4 seed for the playoffs. With a conference record of 6-3-1, the 4th seed is well deserved. The 3-0 lead was set in the first half of the match, and the Gusties did not falter in their play even though they held a vast lead.
The first half of this soccer match was dominated by the Gustavus Golden Gusties, and the Cardinals could not keep up. Junior Joe Flory scored the first goal in this conference matchup and was assisted by Junior Ryder Tomlinson. This goal marked the 12th of the season for Flory, but he did not end that way. Seven minutes after his first, Flory scored again, which marked 13 regular season goals for him this season. First-Year Will Clark assisted this goal and marked his second assist this season.
Finishing off this scoring run from the Gusties, Sophomore Cal Avery scored the third and final goal for this game and the regular season as a whole. Senior Rivaldo Pena assisted in this season’s finale, which gave Gustavus three goals and three assists in this matchup. An assist for every goal shows how well the team works together and how their chemistry is strong. “The team chemistry and atmosphere in the program is truly second to none in my opinion. I am a transfer so this is my first year at Gustavus, and when I got here I was met with nothing but kindness and respect from everyone involved in the program,” Sophomore Jackson Baker said.
Baker is a goalkeeper on the team and led the team in net, making four saves in this shutout victory. In this game, there was a personal aspect to Baker’s game, which made the match even more fun, “One of SMU’s strikers is one of my closest friends from high school, so saving two of his shots was fun,” Baker said. The personal aspect of a game is often looked over upon, but it makes the athletes better, in most cases, and lets them have even more fun out on the field. Baker has had three regular-season shutouts and aims to keep that streak going into the postseason.
Dominating the entirety of the game is exactly what Gustavus did in this road matchup. Outshooting Saint Mary’s 18-5 and having shots on goal outweigh 10-4, the Gusties outshot the Cardinals and found the back of the net in three of those shots. Finding the back of the net has not been difficult for the Gusties this year and they have an average of over two goals a game. On the opposing side, GAC only allows an average of 1.21 goals in the back of their own net.
The second half of this game was quiet. No goals were scored, but that does not mean the game was not hard-fought. The back-and-forth aspect of soccer makes for a fun watch even when there is no scoring. There were a total of eight fouls in the second half, and Gustavus led them, totaling five in the half and nine overall. Two yellow cards were given to Gusties in this match, which caused a little more caution in the rest of play, but that did not hinder them. A red card was given to Saint Mary’s in the 76th minute of the match. The cautions and ejections did not change the outcome of the game, but at the moment, they were a little scary.
Gustavus Adolphus Men’s Soccer is ranked 16th in the nation and is 3rd in their region. This ranking is a great booster for the post-season conference play up ahead. The MIAC semifinals are on Thursday, Nov. 6th, and the Gusties will take on Macalester on the road. This will be a tough matchup, but the men are coming off a win and have a four-game shutout streak going right now, so they are prepared. Macalester was a tough team for Gustavus in the regular season, but there has been much improvement throughout the team, so energy is high. Go Gusties!