Stats | The MNU Men's Soccer team kicked off their conference schedule with a 1-0 win over #13 Missouri Valley on Saturday. Both teams came into the game nationally ranked in the latest Top 25 poll. MVC won last year's regular season game and then MNU avenged that loss in the 2nd round of the HAAC Conference Tournament.
The Pioneers started the game strongly, dominating possession and play early on. A lot of the play was in the midfield and neither team was creating many chances on goal. MNU began to stack up on the number of throw-ins and corner kicks deep in the MVC side of the pitch. Finally, at the 20-minute mark one of those set pieces paid off. A long throw by
Tyler Hageman was cleared out of the box.
Luke Pontin managed to use an overhead kick to play the ball back into the box where
Aurelien Norest was standing. Norest used his head to flick the ball over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. Missouri Valley had a very good chance just minutes later but Chris Eriksson came up with a big save to preserve the lead. At halftime the score was 1-0.
The second half was much like some other games that MNU have played this year. They were managing the game by trying to keep possession and picking their opportunities to go forward. The Vikings were pressing and pushing numbers forward trying to find the equalizing goal. MNU missed 2 great opportunities to extend the lead when they caught MVC on the counter and had numbers up in the final third.
For the game MNU outshot MVC 16-8, with shots on goal being 7-5. Josh Wells was credited with 5 saves for MVC. Chris Eriksson earned another shutout with 5 saves for MNU. MVC falls to 5-3-1 on the season. MNU moves their season record to 8-0-4. Next up for the Pioneers is Graceland University on Saturday, October 6th at 2:30.
