MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran men's soccer team hosted Northland in the first round of the UMAC Tournament on Wednesday and took home a 2-1 victory. With the win the Vikings will move on to face UW-Superior on Saturday at a time to be determined. 



The Vikings were able to get the scoring going early, as Liam Peterson played a ball ahead to Ben Klausen who was running up the left side. Klausen then took a few dribbles and played a low cross to the middle of the field where Antonio Lima was waiting and would tap it home for a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute. It didn't take overly long for the LumberJacks to answer though, as they scored in the 17th minute for their first goal against the Vikings since 2019 to even things at 1-1. Bethany was able to fire a few shots late in the half but couldn't find the back of the net as the teams played the first 45 minutes even. 

In the second half, the Vikings applied pressure early and looked like they were going to score in the first few minutes. Matteo Fustinoni and Tomas Abreu put a pair of shots on net that required two incredible saves as the Northland defense held strong to keep the game even. Bethany continued to apply pressure but it wasn't until the 69th minute that they were rewarded for it. The duo of Antonio Lima and Raheem Graham got a 2-on-1 opportunity and passed it back and forth a few times before Lima was able to take two shots that were saved, with the second being saved out to the right of the net where Graham was waiting for the rebound and he popped it over a few LumberJack defenders for the 2-1 lead. The Vikings would then dominate possession late and keep the Jacks at bay as they took the 2-1 victory to move on to the UMAC Championship.

Nick Lundberg got the start in net and made two saves in the win.