MADISON, WISC. - Friday's season opener for the Madison College men's soccer team was a defensive struggle with just three total shots on goal, and when time expired the ninth-ranked WolfPack earned a 1-0 victory over Western Iowa Tech Community College to improve their home unbeaten streak to 21 straight matches. Freshman
Owen Counsell tallied the lone goal, while second year goalkeeper
Caylen Coventry posted his eighth career shutout. The match was the first-ever meeting with the Comets.
Western Iowa Tech (0-1-0) was the aggressor early in the match, putting a shot on goal in the 6' that Coventry denied and missing wide again in the 7'. The WolfPack's first official shot came in the final minutes of the opening half as Counsell, a defender from Brookfield, Wisconsin, missed a header high in the 42'. Forward
Dylan Sutton and midfielder
Caden Pullar-Newman also came up empty with looks at the net in the last 80 seconds before halftime.
The second half again started with the Comets sending three shots towards the net; however, the Madison College (1-0-0) defense was up to the challenge. The match turned quickly in the 65' when Sutton, a native of Milton Keynes, England, found Counsell sprinting up the right side of the pitch. He lobbed a shot from just outside the penalty area that sailed into goal between the goalkeepers hands and the crossbar for his first collegiate scoring strike.
Coventry and the WolfPack then held off WITCC over the final 25 minutes, turning away three more looks at the goal for the narrow victory. Coventry, a product of Barcelona, Spain, registered two saves.
Western Iowa Tech boasted a 9-5 lead in total shots and a 2-1 edge in shots on goal.
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