On Oct. 21, UW-Eau Claire’s men’s soccer team defeated Luther College North while celebrating senior night.

About 10 minutes into the first half there was one injury, where graduate student Telvin Vah had collided with Luther’s goalie and suffered a concussion. He will be out for a few weeks.

“Hopefully we get into the NC tournament to make sure he can play again,” head coach Casey Holm said. “It was senior night and he’s a senior, and we want him to be able to play again.”

By the end of the first half, UW-Eau Claire was up 3-0. With one goal by Noah Malcook, another by Nathan Donovan and a penalty kick by Sam Lynch.

In the second half, Luther had scored two goals right out of the gate, one regular goal and a penalty kick, both by Ramzi Ouro-Akondo.

But Donovan would score again twice, completing a hat trick, and putting the Blugolds up 5-2.

“In the second half, we didn’t have a very good start to the half,” fourth-year student Ethan Anderson, said. “But we had a good response, ending and scoring two goals after that. I’m always happy with that, it’s a good result.”

The final score ended 5-2, making another Blugold win.

“We scored goals tonight, that was a lot of fun,” Holm said

The team enjoyed putting points on the board, especially on senior night, third-year student Carter Thiesfeld said.

“Winning on senior night, it was good to win for our seniors, the three of them,” Thiesfled said. “We’re having a blast this year.”

As the team moves forward in the season, Anderson said they need to keep their focus.

Thiesfeld said, “We need to stay locked in. We were up 3-0 at halftime, we let two in, but stayed ahead of it and got the win, which is what matters most.”

Holm said it will be a quick turnaround for the team before their next games.

“With Telvin going down that hurts a little bit,” Holm said. “Keeping guys healthy is very important to us, and it’s gonna be a quick couple of days. We have a game on Tuesday and Friday, and we need to make sure they stay sharp, stay fit and ready to go for those.”

Anderson said that five goals scored is exciting for the games looking ahead. 

“Good performance, good run out,” Anderson said. “Last game at home, it’s a gorgeous night, we had a fun time, and we’re going to do it again next week.”

As the season moves forward, Holm said the team needs to continue to score like it did against Luther.

“We need to continue to score goals at the level we did today,” Holm said. “In other games, we haven’t scored like we did today so that was fun to see.”

The team’s next game is Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. against Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

More information on the team’s schedule can be found at Blugold Athletics.

Boggess can be reached at [email protected].