Moorhead, Minn. – The road to the MIAC postseason championship will run through St. Joseph, as the Saint Benedict soccer team has won the MIAC regular season title for the second time in head coach Steve Kimble's five years leading the Blazers.
 
They capped their season with a decisive 2-0 victory today (Nov. 2) over the second-place Concordia Cobbers. Both teams needed a win in today's game in order to clinch a conference championship. The Blazers will be the top seed in the MIAC playoff tournament and will host the Cobbers in the tournament's first round, who fell to fourth place with the loss.
 
Knowing a conference championship was on the line, the Cobbers came out yearning to take an early lead on the Blazers, but were denied that chance by stonewall first-year keeper Heather Kaluzniak (Plymouth, Minn.). Kaluzniak made a season high seven saves in the first half alone, and eight in the game to keep the Cobbers at bay. The shutout was the biggest of Kaluzniak's career and seventh of the year.
 
In the game's 30th minute senior forward Colleen Bouchard (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) dribbled the ball to the side of the box and crossed it in front for first-year forward Taylor Hedin (Andover, Minn.), who tapped it past the Cobber keeper Sarah Fleissner and gave the Blazers a one goal lead. The goal is Hedin's fifth goal of the year, and ninth and tenth point, breaking the double-digit point plateau in her first year as a Blazer.
 
The teams played scoreless soccer until the 87th minute, when sophomore forward Grace Vaughan (Shakopee, Minn.) scored off a pass from Bouchard to seal the win and MIAC title for her team. The two assists on the day were Bouchard's conference-leading 13th and 14th of the year, and 33rd and 34th of her career. She is now tied for first all-time with Katie Snyder ('93) for most career assists by a Blazer in program history. Her mark of 14 assists is the second-highest single-season assist total in Blazer history.
 
Hopefully the Blazers and Cobbers made good friends with each other, because they will be right back at each other this Tuesday in the first round of the MIAC playoffs. As the first-seed, the Blazers will host the fourth-seeded Cobbers at 2 p.m. on Tuesday at Haws Field at Saint John's University. The winner of that game will play the winner of second-seeded Macalester and third-seeded St. Olaf in the MIAC playoff championship on Saturday.