Men's soccer blanks Mount St. Joseph

DEFIANCE, Ohio - The Defiance College men's soccer team snapped a four-game skid on Wednesday evening by taming the Mount St. Joseph Lions for a Heartland Colligate Athletic Conference victory.

In just his second career start, sophomore goalkeeper Austin Boles recorded a nine-save shutout to help give the Yellow Jackets the win. The win and shutout are both the second of his career. Boles also recorded a 2-0 shutout victory over Franklin earlier this month in his collegiate debut.

Sophomore midfielder Armando Campos-Ortiz put the Yellow Jackets on the board in the first half after outracing his defenders to an Eli Rogers pass and beat the Lion keeper. The goal is the first of the season for Campos-Ortiz while the assist is the first of Rogers' career.

The Yellow Jackets held a 1-0 lead going into halftime thanks to five saves in the first half by Boles and the hard work of the Defiance defense.

After being slightly outshot 6-5 by the Lions in the first, the Purple and Gold recorded 11 second-half shots compared to MSJ's six.

The hosts extended their lead to two goals in the final 10 minutes of the contest when Noah Svanberg launched a ball towards the net on a free-kick and Jeremy Jimenez was able to slip behind the Lions defense and keeper to direct it into the net for his first goal of the season. Svanberg's assist is his first this season after notching four last year.

Boles added four more saves in the second half and the Yellow Jacket defense held off a ferocious effort by the Lions to record the team's fourth clean sheet of the season.

Campos-Ortiz led the Yellow Jackets with three shots in the match. Rogers, Svanberg, Jarren Casto, and Chase Stiner each totaled a pair of shots for Defiance.

The Yellow Jackets improve to 3-3-1 on the season with the win. Defiance will play again on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 on the road at Transylvania.