SAINT PETER, Minn. – In a matchup of the top two ranked men’s soccer teams in the North Region, Gustavus kept its unbeaten streak alive with a 2-1 win over Luther on Monday. The Gusties, ranked No. 8 in Division III, improve to 10-0-4 overall, while the Norse, ranked No. 21, fall to 8-3-4.
Gustavus took the early lead in the 13th minute by taking advantage of a free kick. Owen Johnson (Jr., Apple Valley) sent the ball into the box where Raphael Cattelin (Jr., Edina) put it home with a header for his third goal of the season. Luther answered three minutes later by capitalizing on a Gustie error on a pass back to keeper Wesley Sanders (Sr., Urbandale, Iowa).
The score remained 1-1 until the 65th minute as Luther was called for a foul in its own box, allowing Otis Anderson (Jr., Minneapolis) to score his fifth goal of the season on a penalty kick.
Gustavus edged the Norse 15-14 in shots as Sanders made seven saves in goal.
“A battle between the number one and two teams in the region was always going to be a hard game,” Head Coach Tudor Flintham said. “And not always pretty. Luther is perennially a North Region power, with a strong identity and well coached. I think our guys wanted it to be pretty all the time and Luther punished us for that in the first 15 to 20 minutes. When we started to mix up our play and attack with some bite, things opened up and we looked really dangerous.
“But overall we are really happy, it’s been a huge week for us and the guys definitely were carrying a little bit of an emotional hangover from our last result into this game. So to gut out another win against a super gifted program that we respect a ton, that’s another special moment for us. We’ll take a day off to reflect on the week. Step back and recharge and refocus. But then we get right back at it on Wednesday and prepare for a huge game on Saturday.”
Gustavus returns to conference play Saturday at Bethel for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff.