The UW-Eau Claire men’s soccer team defeated the UW-Superior Yellowjackets at Simpson Field on Saturday afternoon by a final score of 4-1. Saturday’s victory for the Blugolds marked their third consecutive victory in a row and their fifth victory out of six games to start the year. 

A key contributor to the Blugolds victory, fourth-year forward Nathan Donovan, scored a first-half hat trick, which is three goals in a single game, to propel the Blugolds to victory. 

Donovan’s first goal of the afternoon came 11 minutes into the contest, courtesy of assists from second-year forward Noah Malcook and fourth-year midfielder Carter Thiesfeld. 

Donovan would then tally goals at 16:35 in the first half, assisted by first-year midfield Tate McDermott and completed his first-half hat trick at 33:47 with an assist from fourth-year forward Porter Ball. 

The scoring for the Blugolds would continue in the second half as first-year forward Owen Backus scored his first collegiate goal 47 minutes into the contest, courtesy of assists from Donovan and Thiesfeld

Saturday’s game marked Donovan’s third consecutive hat trick, which is three goals in a single game, ramping up his goal tally for the season to a Division 3-leading 11 goals on the season. His play impressed his head coach Casey Holm. 

“He’s a manchild out there. He leads the country in goals with 11 and the next closest is six,” Holm said. “He’s on his third hat trick of the season and he’s just a special player.” 

Something that the Blugolds have emphasized this season and why they were able to generate four goals on Saturday afternoon with 10 shots at the goaltender was placing pressure on opposing offenses. 

“It’s our motto and we call it 90 minutes of hell. It comes from a college basketball team that emphasized a similar motto called 40 minutes of hell,” Holm said. “That’s what we try to do every game and that’s how we want to get in our groove.” 

While the play of one individual has been highlighted in the early season for the Blugolds, it’s been a true team effort for the Blugolds this season in how they are attacking and getting off to a good start. 

One thing that the team has shown early this season is their ability to work towards a common goal of bringing home a national championship. It’s more important for fourth-year athletes on the inaugural team, including forward Will Heinen. 

“With this program being in its fourth year, a lot of the freshmen are now seniors and we’ve been through the ringer,” Heinen said. “We can now hand the reins to the younger guys and I think that everyone in this group has one common goal and that’s bringing a national championship home to Eau Claire.”

Despite the four goals in the winning effort and a winning streak that has now expanded to three games, the team is still looking for little errors to adjust going forward. In particular on the defensive side after giving up a goal late in the game. 

“It’s not nice seeing the other team score,” Heinen said. “So getting those zeros on the board for the other team is definitely our biggest priority going forward.” 

Meanwhile, on the women’s side, the team traveled to Naperville, Illinois to take part in the North Central Invitational on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. 

They tied against Albion College on Friday night 1-1 and lost on Saturday afternoon against North Central College by a score of 3-2.  

Friday night’s game against Albion was a game full of offensive opportunities where the Blugolds tallied 22 shots, with only 10 being on goal. The first half of the game also marked the only offensive tally courtesy of fourth-year midfielder Elise Pinewski. 

Albion would respond with a goal of their own in the 33rd minute, tying the game up 1-1. 

Despite 14 shots from the Blugolds in the second half, they failed to take the lead in the game as the game ended in a tie. Something that head coach Sean Yengo wanted to see improvement upon from his team was offensive execution in close games. 

“It was a game where we didn’t convert our opportunities,” Yengo said. “We just have to improve upon executing our chances and look to put games away through our offensive execution.” 

Despite the offensive shortcomings in the first game, Yengo was very pleased with the defensive effort in Friday’s game where the Blugolds only allowed seven shots with two on goal. 

“That game was a defensive battle on both ends and I thought that Albion played well,” Yengo said. “We just have to keep that effort going down the stretch.” 

Going into Saturday’s game against North Central College who had won their conference last season and got off to a 5-2 start to their season, the Blugolds got into a competitive match with the Cardinals but would lose the game 3-2. 

The scoring got started courtesy of first-year forward Emma Donovan scoring her first collegiate goal five minutes into the match with an assist from fourth-year forward Sophie Hubbard. 

With this infusion of contributions from the younger players like Donovan, veteran leadership from players like Pinewski and Hubbard are key for the team in making it a successful season. 

“We have nine seniors on this team this year who are able to pass knowledge onto younger players,” Hubbard said. “We have a few first-year forwards on this team who have been emulating what Elise has been telling them and keeping it with them.” 

After two goals from the Cardinals, Pinewski would tie the game up at two in the 43rd minute with her second goal of the weekend. The tie would be soon broken by the Cardinals in the 62nd minute and wouldn’t look back from there as the Blugolds lost 3-2. 

Despite the loss on Saturday, the team was encouraged by the offensive improvement in comparison to Friday’s game along with their ability to compete against a good North Central team. 

“We knew this game was going to be a challenge coming in and that they were going to try to limit our opportunities on goal,” Hubbard said. “So I was proud that when we got our opportunities to score, we were able to put them in the back of the net.” 

Going down the stretch, the Blugolds know that many improvements can be made going forward, no matter how big or small the adjustments are. 

“It’s about the minor details and keeping our focus out there,” Hubbard said. “Two of the goals they had on Saturday came off of throw-ins where we temporarily lost focus so staying locked in the entire game will help us out going forward.”

The men’s soccer team’s next game will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18  when they play at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. While the women’s team hosts Luther College at 7:30 p.m on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at Simpson Field. 

Mikalofsky can be reached at [email protected].