Upper Midwest Athletic Conference

UMAC Game of the Week Archives

ST. PAUL -- The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Game of the Week is a feature that takes place each week throughout the conference portion of the season with one contest being selected and highlighted as the UMAC Game of the Week.

The week the league has selected two games to feature as men's soccer rivals Bethany Lutheran College and Martin Luther College will meet two times in just three days. On Thursday, October 10 the teams will play in Mankato at 7 p.m. and will switch locations on Saturday, October 12 with a 2:15 p.m. start time scheduled in New Ulm. The games will have a significant impact for both teams as they look to remain in the hunt for a UMAC Tournament berth and in the top half of the conference standings. The Vikings are currently 4-2 in UMAC play while the Knights are 3-3.

About the Vikings
The Bethany Lutheran men's soccer team is off to one of its better starts in the school's UMAC era. They got off to a 3-0 conference start (best start for a Vikings team in UMAC play) and are coming into this weekend's pivotal games with Martin Luther, winners of two straight.

Bethany is led by sophomore forward Benjamin Moldstad who leads the team, and is tied for fourth in the conference, with seven goals. With three assists, Moldstad is also sixth in the UMAC with 17 points. The Vikings also possess a stout goalkeeping presence in Ryan Bolte and Noah Heidorn who are third and fifth respectively in the conference in goals allowed.

About the Knights
The Knights enter this week’s two-game series against Bethany Lutheran with a record of 3-3 in UMAC play, and currently sit in fifth place in the conference standings. MLC comes into the weekend one game behind Northwestern, Minnesota Morris and BLC for one of the top four seeds, and will be looking to stop an eight-game losing streak against the Vikings in order to break into that top group.

MLC is coming off a difficult loss to conference-leading St. Scholastica, but prior to that game had won three of its last four games. The offense has stepped up during conference play thanks to senior forward Ryan Lemke, who has scored five goals and 12 points in the last five games. Defensively, the team must rebound from allowing eight goals to CSS, but has shown improvement as the season has progressed. Eric Hahn has improved his goals against average to 3.32 and his save percentage to .759 in conference games, while the team also has two shutouts in league play.

Game notes
- Bethany has defeated Martin Luther eight straight times.

- Four of the eight wins by BLC between 2009-2012 have been decided by one goal, including last season, when BLC won the two meetings by the scores of 3-2 and 2-1.

- MLC is looking for its first win against Bethany Lutheran since the regular season finale in 2008, when the Knights won 4-0 in Mankato.

- Bethany is averaging 2.4 goals per game, good for second in the UMAC.

- MLC's Ryan Lemke has scored five times in the last five games, with two of the goals coming on penalty kicks. He currently leads the Knights in goals (five), points (13), shots (48), shots on goal (22), and is tied for the team lead in assists (three).

Bethany Lutheran Recap | Martin Luther Recap | #UMACgotw | Final Scores: BLC 1, MLC 0; BLC 2, MLC 1

For information on other contests around the league this week, visit the UMAC's live scoreboard.