MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany men's soccer team held off a late push by the visiting Bethel Royals on Monday to take a 2-1 non-conference victory. With the win the Vikings move to 7-2-2 overall while the Royals fall to 5-6.



Minutes before the match began, Agostino Quadrio Curzio was a late scratch for the Vikings which pushed Raheem Graham into the starting XI and it proved to be a good lineup decision by Head Coach Derick Lyngholm. Eirik Hansson took a corner for the Vikings just over 10 minutes in and his ball found Graham who was able to knock one past the Royal keeper to give the home team the early 1-0 lead. After scoring the teams opening goal in the past two matches, Antonio Lima decided that he once again wanted in on the action, firing from outside the box and striking one just under the crossbar with an assist to Sam Irsfeld less than two minutes after Graham's score. With his goal Lima continues his scorching start to the season and now has eight goals in the past six matches. 

After the Vikings early push, the Royals started to fight back. In the 14th minute, the Royals had their first big chance of the match after a corner. Bethel would fire a shot to the far post and keeper Mason Steffen was hovering near post, but Bernardo Abreu was there and skied into the air and headed it out of harms way to record a team save for the Vikings. The Royals would fire a shot on net after Abreu's miraculous save and this time it was Steffen knocking it away before a number of Bethany defenders swarmed net and were able to boot the ball away. Steffen would be challenged a number of times in the first half, but saved four shots as the teams headed to the break with Bethany holding a 2-0 lead. 

As play resumed in the second half, the physicality and speed of the game livened up. It didn't take long for Bethel to break through as they had a corner in the 54th minute that would go far post that resulted in a header goal to cut the deficit in half. The Royals would continue to apply pressure down the stretch but the Vikings were stingy on defense and constantly able to play the ball out of harms way to hold Bethel off and take a 2-1 victory.

Steffen made five saves in net while allowing the one goal as his record moves to 2-0-1 on the year. 

The Vikings are next in action Wednesday when they take on Minnesota-Morris in a 5:30 p.m. contest.