St. Joseph, Minn. – The Saint Benedict Soccer team (8-1, 3-0 MIAC) notched its eighth straight victory today (Sept. 27^th), beating the Gusties of Gustavus College by a 3-0 score. The Blazers improve to 3-0 in the MIAC, and are now tied with only Augsburg atop the MIAC standings.
 
Sophomore forward Taylor Hedin got the Blazers on the board mid-way though the first-half, scoring off a cross from junior forward Gracie Vaughan.  The goal was Hedin's third of the year and gave the Blazers a 1-0 lead heading into halftime.
 
Coming out aggressive after the halftime break, the Blazers struck pay dirt twice in the 61^st minute. At 60:18 first-year forward Jenna Kleason jumped to head a cross from Mariah Williams pass the keeper and give the Blazers a 2-0 lead. That goal was the first of Kleason's collegiate career.
 
"I was pretty excited, Mariah gave me a great ball and I was there to finish it," said Kleason.
 
Just 21 seconds later, Vaughan stole the ball from a Gustie midfielder, dribbled around several defenders and rifled a shot past the Gustie keeper, sealing the win and giving the Blazers a 3-0 victory.
 
Senior keeper Megan Favorite stated in goal and sophomore keeper Heather Kaluzniak came on in the second half to close the game, marking the sixth time this season the two keepers have split the halves to combine for a clean sheet. Favorite attributes their successes in net to the Blazer defense, which held the Gusties to just three shots on net today.
 
"There's no other reason that we have seven shutouts right now except that our defense kills it every single game," said Favorite.
 
It was really exciting to get this win and get some momentum heading into Wednesday," added Kleason.
 
This Wednesday the Blazers will travel to St. Paul to take on the Macalester Scots in a rematch of last year's MIAC Championship game. The Scots were the only team to beat the Blazers in St. Joe last year.