Men's Soccer 10/1/06 -- Augsburg 3, Buena Vista (Iowa) 0

BOXSCORE

STORM LAKE, Iowa (10/1/06) -- Claiming its 11th shutout in 12 games this season, Augsburg College recorded a 3-0 non-conference men's soccer victory over host Buena Vista University on Sunday afternoon.

Alec Rabine (Jr., St. Louis Park, Minn.) scored two goals in a second half that featured three goals and seven yellow cards.

Rabine scored what proved to be the game-winner in the 64th minute. Buena Vista goalkeeper Mark Maguire was attempting to clear the ball in traffic, but was upended as he punched the ball towards Rabine who scored on the open net.

Less then 10 minutes later, Augsburg, which was playing with a southerly wind at its back, was awarded a penalty kick. Ryan Kitzman * (Sr., Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo HS) converted on the opportunity.

Rabine added a late goal for the Auggies, who are currently ranked seventh in the West Region. Josh Stepaniak (Fr., Woodbury, Minn.) was credited with the assist.

Augsburg gave several reserves plenty of playing time in the nonconference match, said head coach Greg Holker.

"This was a good time for us to rest some of our key guys, and get minutes for others. I thought Jordan Bengston (Fr., Forest Lake, Minn.) did well with the 45 minutes he had in the second half. It was JB's free kick led to Rabine's first goal. After getting his first start, Nicholas Stuber (Sr., Cadillac, Mich.) was very effective holding the ball for us throughout the game," Holker said. "Noah Turner (Jr., Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata HS) was steady in the back – he helped us through some difficult moments early in the game as we faced a strong wind off the lake."

Buena Vista had numerous scoring opportunities, especially in the first half when it had the wind at its back. The Beavers were held scoreless for the seventh time this year.

Augsburg outshot Buena Vista by a 19-12 margin. Donnie McCarthy (So., Whitehall, Mich.) made five saves to record his second career shutout in goal for the Auggies, while Maguire made six saves for Buena Vista.

"Donnie McCarthy gave Pascaul Venter (So., Rochester, Minn./John Marshall HS) a rest and earned his first clean sheet of the season," Holker said. "His distribution has come a long way in the last 12 months, as evidenced by his play today."

As a team, Augsburg has now outscored its opponents by a 23-2 margin, and has a team goals-against-average of 0.16.

Buena Vista is now 2-8-1 on the year. Augsburg improved to 9-1-2.

Augsburg returns to action on Wednesday (10/4) with an 8 p.m. nonconference game against Martin Luther at Edor Nelson Field. Buena Vista returns to action on Saturday (10/7) at 3 p.m. with an Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game at Coe.

"We will spend this next week evaluating our fitness level as a team and cleaning up some issues we have seen on film, before we get into our final conference push," Holker