Box Score

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - On a beautiful sunny afternoon, the Bethel Royals outshone even the weather on their home field with a 3-2 victory over the St. Olaf Oles. The win signifies the end of a nine game slide and the team's first conference win of the season.

The Oles struck first with a goal by Nate Swenson, assisted by Sam Harrington, put in at just over the ten minute mark of the game.  Not allowing it to phase them, the Royals turned it up a notch and put away three unanswered goals on the Oles, which would be all they needed to claim their win.

Brandon Peplinski (So., Maple Grove, Minn.) was the first Royal to capitalize offensively, scoring an  unassisted goal at 42 minutes into the game.  Bethel's two other goals in the game were put in by leading scorer for the Royals, Randon Sommars (Sr., Cambridge, Minn.). The first goal was scored at the beginning of the second half, at 48:08, assisted by Andreas Scott (So., Cedar, Minn.) and Sommars' second goal came at just under 58 minutes into the game, assisted by Peplinski.

St. Olaf would score again, unassisted by Swenson with just over 20 minutes left to play in the game, but it would not be enough to overtake the Royals. The Oles nearly scored again - on themselves - as some mis-communication between an Ole defender and their goalie resulted in the ball narrowly missing the net, which would have given the Royals a 4-2 lead.

Royal goalkeeper, Nick Kantor (Jr., Buffalo, Minn.) had a big impact on the field today stopping 13 of the Oles 15 shots on net. Kantor is currently ranked second in the MIAC for saves per game averaging 6.40.

The win today brings Bethel to 1-5 in the MIAC and 2-9 overall and St. Olaf falls to 3-3 in the MIAC and 6-5 overall. The Royals next scheduled game is an away game against Gustavus on Oct. 11, at 1p.m.