NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The Carleton College men's soccer team hosted No. 1-ranked St. Olaf College on Wednesday and played the visitors even for much of the match. Injuries led to Carleton missing multiple starters, but the Knights managed to create several dangerous chances before conceding a trio of late goals in a 3-0 result.
"We can't catch a break; we had (a fifth) outside back go down in this one," said Carleton head coach
Bob Carlson. "We held (St. Olaf) off for a while, but fatigue became a factor. I'm really happy with the effort and fight that our guys had."
St. Olaf (10-0-0, 3-0-0 MIAC) finished with a 17-12 edge in shots, but the dozen attempts by Carleton (5-4-0, 1-2-0 MIAC) represented the second-most surrendered by the top-ranked Oles this season.
Carleton had the first quality chance of the match. There was no way the St. Olaf goalkeeper was going to get to
Hans Lechner's shot less than five minutes in, but the first-year's attempt was cleared off the line by an Ole defender. Rookies
Oscar Gates and
Matthew Deffo also had dangerous chances for the Knights in the opening 15 minutes.
The two teams went into intermission still scoreless, with St. Olaf unable to force Carleton keeper
Adam Ouachani to make any tough saves. The visitors held an 8-6 edge in shots over the first 45 minutes, but the Knights had the more dangerous opportunities.
The second half started the same as the first, with Carleton coming out as the aggressors.
Willan Shrock had a pair of promising attacks slid wide in the opening moments of the second stanza.
In the 51st minute, a handball was whistled against a St. Olaf defender, who was seemingly inside the 18-yard box. The Carleton bench was stunned when the call resulted not in a penalty kick, but rather a free kick just outside the box. The subsequent shot attempt was deflected out for a corner kick.
Carleton had another scoring chance halted in the 56th minute when Deffo sprung
Owen Davenport on a counterattack only to have an Ole defender earn a yellow card for grabbing Davenport's jersey to prevent a potential breakaway.
St. Olaf cracked the Carleton defense in the 74th minute. An Ole whiffed twice on a long ball into the box, but Jack Soares reached back for a shot that deflected off a Knight and into the net.
The visitors tacked on an insurance goal three minutes later when Tustin Todd tucked a shot from the right wing into the extreme upper right corner of the net. St. Olaf put the game away with a third goal in the 84th minute.
Quachani finished with seven saves while Beckett Carlson had three saves in addition to help from a teammate and a fortunate call to preserve his clean sheet.
Up Next for the Knights
Carleton will hold its annual Alumni Game on Saturday, Oct. 3. The following day, the Knights host the University of California, Santa Cruz Banana Slugs for a non-conference match on at 11:00 a.m.
