MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Carleton men’s soccer team started its conference-title defense with a 2-0 road victory over Concordia College. The Knights (1-2, 1-0 MIAC) got first-half scores from junior Wes Elfman (Madison, Wis./Edgewood) and sophomore Miles Silbert (St. Louis Park, Minn.) in recording their first victory of the 2009 campaign.
The victory improved the Knights’ record to 21-1-3 spanning their last 25 conference matches dating back to Oct. 14, 2006.
Carleton, which was coming off a season-opening thrashing by Wartburg College followed by a double-overtime loss at North Central, started slowly but got things going midway through the first half.
“We had some guys step up and play really well today,” said head coach Bob Carlson. “We needed a total team effort, because Concordia was good, and we had to play really well to get this victory. We moved the ball around as well as we have all year.”
After the Cobbers (2-1, 0-1 MIAC) took the first four shots of the contest, Knights’ defender Robert Carlton (Sr./Madison, Wis./Memorial) finally unleashed the visiting teams initial scoring attempt off a corner kick more than 25 minutes into the contest. Although that try sailed wide, it seemed to awaken the Carleton offense as the Knights out-shot their hosts 14-3 over the balance of the competition.
In the 28th minute, Tim Wills (So./Portland, Ore./Central Catholic) created a breakaway opportunity by playing a through ball to Elfman, who slotted the ball home for his second goal of the season.
Carleton did a nice job building up the attack again moments later and was rewarded thanks to a spark off the bench.
Silbert, who entered the contest at the 33:10 mark, tallied his first goal of the year less than four minutes later. Cobber keeper Mads Schmidt stopped the initial shot by Carleton forward Brian Rhodes (Fy./Kalamazoo, Mich./Mattawan), but Silbert was opportunistic and deposited the rebound into the net.
Given the two-goal advantage the Carleton defense took over and permitted only three shot attempts—just one on goal—over the final 73 minutes of play.
The Knights kept the offensive pressure on, but Schmidt was equal to the task and denied Carleton a handful of opportunities to extend the lead.
At the other end of the pitch, keeper Pete Semmer (Jr./Del Mar, Calif./Bishop’s School) made four saves in recording his 19th career shutout for the Knights.
Carleton is now 32-6-6 overall spanning the last three seasons and will play host to Carthage College in a women’s-men’s doubleheader on Sunday, Sept. 13. The women start at 1:00 p.m. with the men taking the field at 3:00 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on Knights Online.
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