ROLLA, Mo. – Despite dropping its first contest of the season Wednesday night, Missouri S&T's men's soccer team is still undefeated in Great Lakes Valley Conference play and will put that mark on the line Friday against another team that has yet to lose in conference action.
The Miners will face Missouri-St. Louis in a 7:30 p.m. contest at the S&T Soccer Field in the first of two GLVC contests they will host this weekend, as S&T will close out its three-game homestand Sunday with a 2:30 p.m. game against Maryville.
S&T enters Friday's contest at 2-0-3 in the GLVC and are currently fifth in the league standings, while the Tritons are tied for the conference lead with Rockhurst – the top-ranked team in NCAA Division II – at 5-0-1 in GLVC play.
The Miners, who are 3-1-4 overall, scored the first goal of Wednesday's contest with Lindenwood when
Garrett Trautman (Amory, MS/Amory) headed in
Unnar Ulfarsson (Gardabaer, Iceland/Fjolnir Reykjavik)'s corner kick just under two minutes into play, but the Lions tallied the next three goals and held off a late Miner surge for a 3-2 win that ended S&T's unbeaten run to start the 2016 season at seven games.
Austin Parks (Rolla, MO/Rolla) also scored for the Miners in Wednesday's match and is among six S&T players who have found the net this season, a group led by
Felipe Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) with five goals on the year. Ulfarsson, who nearly tied the game in the final minutes when his direct free kick hit the crossbar, has scored twice this season.
Goalkeeper
Aaron Hohenstein (St. Louis, MO/Lutheran South) has a 0.50 goals against average and four shutouts on the season, making 41 saves in 726 minutes of playing time and owns the 13
th-best goals against average in NCAA Division II.
UMSL enters Friday's match sporting a seven-game unbeaten streak -- which includes a scoreless tie last Friday against Rockhurst – and will bring an overall mark of 6-1-1 into the contest. The Tritons received votes in this week's NSCAA Division II national rankings.
Goalkeeper Jack Filla, this week's defensive player of the week in the conference, has a 0.73 goals against average and has made 32 saves in 740 minutes of action. The team in front of him has had balanced scoring thus far, led by Pat Ries' four goals and three assists for 11 points and three goals from DJ Bednar.
Sunday's opponent, Maryville, takes a 4-4 overall record and 1-4 GLVC mark into Friday's match at Drury. The Saints dropped a 2-0 decision to Rockhurst on Sunday after topping William Jewell two days earlier and has been led in scoring by Pontus Gitselov with four goals and an assist.
Christian Kjaersgaard has a 1.71 goals against average for the year with a shutout and 27 saves.
