Men's Soccer opens MIAC play with 1-0 win

The ninth-ranked St. Thomas men's soccer team defeated Macalester College 1-0 on Wednesday night at South Field to open the conference portion of its schedule with a win for the fourth time in the last six years. The Tommies scored the game's only goal in the 32nd minute and hung on from there to take the victory.

With the win, St. Thomas improves to 5-1-0 overall and opens MIAC play 1-0-0, while Macalester drops to 3-3-1 overall and 0-1-1 against league opponents.

The two teams were evenly matched in a scoreless tie through the first half hour of play. Only five shots were taken through the opening 30 minutes before Connor Young broke the silence with his first collegiate goal.

Young received a pass from junior Miles Stockman-Willis and took a drive from the corner of the box. Young's shot glanced off the fingertips of a diving Macalester goalkeeper and into the back of the net to put the Toms in front.

Macalester came back to score just three minutes later, scoring on a header attempt, but an offside call negated the goal and allowed the Tommies to take a 1-0 lead to the intermission.

The Scots threatened again in the second half, but another offside put the lid on a quality scoring chance. They also had opportunities on three corner kicks, but could not put one away.

Like Macalester, UST also created opportunities for its offense, but was not able to put a shot on net in the final 45 minutes of the contest.

Macalester's final chance at an equalizer came in the final minute of the game. The Scots were awarded a throw-in deep in St. Thomas territory, but the Tommie defense stood tall yet again to secure the win.

For the game, St. Thomas displayed a shot advantage of 8-5, while shots on goal were even at two apiece. The Scots held a 3-2 advantage in corner kicks and also committed seven more fouls than the Tommies (14-7).

"Today was a great example of how tight the MIAC race will be," mentioned Head Coach Jon Lowery. "We earned a valuable result against a very good Macalester team. It was a great start to the MIAC campaign and one we will again learn from as we move forward."

Senior goalkeeper Mitchell Wolff went the distance and picked up the shutout win. It was his second shutout and fifth win of the year in a two-save effort. His counterpart, Zeke Vainer, suffered the loss after making just one save.

St. Thomas will take back to the road for a pair of games in Kenosha, Wis., this weekend. The Tommies will square off with Wartburg in a neutral site non-conference game on Saturday, Sept. 20th at 7:00 p.m., before meeting the host Carthage College the following day at 5:00 p.m. UST will get back into MIAC action on Saturday, Sept. 27th when they travel to Winona, Minn., to take on Saint Mary's.

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Team Stats

Connor Young

Miles Stockman-Willis

Mark Heydt

Pierce Erickson

University of St. Thomas Athletics