Billings, MT. – The Saint Martin's men's soccer team (1-7-1, 1-2 GNAC) utilized a powerful second half on Wednesday afternoon and ended up defeating the MSU-Billings Yellowjackets (2-5-1, 0-2-1 GNAC) by a score of 3-0 at Yellowjacket Field.
It was a stagnant first half between the two sides and neither squad could see one through to the back of the net.
Nick Mueller stopped one shot in the first and three in the second frame in order to grab his first clean sheet of the season. Despite the Yellowjackets cracking 14 total shots, there wasn't a whole ton that troubled the SMU defense, with Mueller being relatively comfortable for all 90 minutes.
The scoring brought on the avalanche right away in the second half. Less than three minutes in,
Angel Alvarado-Fajardo looped a ball into the front of the cage from the right side where
Ethan Jud was waiting for it to put a strong header in the back of the net.
With a 1-0 lead, the offense continued to press forward. Just nine minutes later, it was
Caden Martin that got a dish from
Jay Mendoza that he flicked over the goalkeeper for a beautiful rainbow goal to make it 2-0 in favor of the Saints.
Finally,
Diego Andrade broke loose down the left flank in the 82
nd minute and essentially dribbled past the MSU-B keeper to push it over the line. Andrade and Jud led the Saints in shots with three each.
Three goals is the most that SMU has scored in a single match all season and this is also just the second shutout kept by the Saints. The boys will be back at home on Saturday when they host the Wolves of Western Oregon (4-2-3, 1-2-2 GNAC) at 3:30 PM at Saints Field.
