MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The Macalester College men's soccer team closed their regular season on Friday with a 1-0 win over Augsburg University at Edor Nelson Field in Minneapolis, Minn. With the win, the Scots clinch a berth to the MIAC Playoffs for the 12th consecutive year.
Shooting opened early, with a shot by Augsburg in the second minute that was stopped by sophomore goalkeeper
Justin Ratner (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park). In the 37th minute, first year midfielder
Kiernan Gaughan (Lenexa, Kan./Shawnee Mission North) passed the ball down the left side to senior midfielder
Kasdan Blattman (San Jose, Calif./Bellarmine), who sent a left-footed shot into the right side of Augsburg's goal, marking the only scoring play of the match. Macalester also outshot Augsburg over the half, 15-5, with seven of their shots registering as on-goal.
Augsburg's offense outshot Macalester 10-6 over the second half, though Ratner stopped all three of Augsburg's shots on goal. Ratner occupied Macalester's goal for the whole game, logging six saves to record the shutout.
Across the match, the Scots took 21 shots, beating out the Auggies' 15. Leading in shots for Macalester was senior forward
Chris Frantz (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove) with seven, followed by sophomore midfielder
Milan Shah (Chicago, Ill./Francis W. Parker) with four.
With the victory, the Scots improve to 7-5-4 on the season (5-4-1 in MIAC play) and have locked in a berth to the MIAC Playoffs. The Auggies fall to a record of 5-4-7 (4-3-3 MIAC). Playoff hopes are still alive for Augsburg, who could qualify depending on the results of Saturday's games.
The next match for Macalester will be during the MIAC Playoffs, to be held from Tuesday, Nov. 3 to Saturday, Nov. 7.
Story by Miles Remmel
