On Sept. 29 at 1 p.m, the Saint Benedict soccer team will host St. Olaf in a matchup of conference rivals.

After dropping back-to-back games for the first time since early last season the Blazers will be looking to use this game as a stepping stone to get back on track towards their preseason goal of repeating as conference champions. The Oles and Blazers are both lodged in the middle of the conference standings with MIAC records of 2-2.

The first loss came unexpectedly at the hands of the Gustavus Gusties at home. After going down by two goals early, the Blazers were only able to muster one goal, scored by first-year Alyssa Hoffman, and dropped the match 2-1.

The most recent loss came on the road against Augsburg. The Blazers again found themselves behind, this time by one goal until mid-way through the second half when Laura Kosch rifled in her first goal of the season, tying the match 1-1. They played the Auggies evenly for the rest of regulation and the first overtime, but were not able to stop a well-placed header by Auggie forward Marie Fitzgerald in the second overtime.

And Saturday's match against St. Olaf won't be any easier, either. “They're always a team that gives us trouble, their defense is solid, they scout us well, and they have a talented young forward,” head coach Steve Kimble said. “They're very good when they play us and I'm expecting, like everybody else, that they're going to get up for Saint Ben's. That seems to be the theme this year, so I'm expecting it to be another tough match.”

Although the Ole's offense has not been overly productive on paper (0.9 goals per game, second-to-last in the MIAC), they have played a tough schedule so far and will be no stranger to the tough and high-pressure defense the Blazers will impose on them. They are also pretty stingy themselves on the defensive side of the ball, allowing slightly more than half a goal per game this season.

The Blazers are in somewhat uncharted waters as they try to avoid losing their third straight game, but Kimble is not ready to press the panic button.

“We're not even close to throwing in the towel,” said Kimble. “Back-to-back losses doesn't happen often to us, we were in those games, we felt like we had chances to pull through, but we're moving on, we're going to try and go get that win on Saturday.”

On the bright side, after dropping two games the Blazers still find themselves only a game behind the conference leaders. A conference championship is still very much a possibility for the young team.  

“I think it's only going to take one more goal or one more win to get us all fired up again, I've got a great group of players and they'll keep fighting every game it doesn't matter what happened last game,” said Kimble.