The Forester men's soccer team blanked host St. Norbert College 3-0 Friday night to raise its overall record to 9-2-1 and Midwest Conference mark to 5-1-0. Lake Forest senior goalkeeper Ethan Guenther registered his fifth shutout and seventh scoreless start of the season.
Guenther needed just one save to keep the Green Knights off the scoreboard. He is now 7-1-1 with a 0.36 goals against average on the year.
Lake Forest junior Mahir Mameledzija, who entered the week leading the country in points and tied for the national lead in goals, continued his torrid scoring pace with two tallies and an assist. His unassisted score on a direct kick at 35:37 was his eighth official game-winner of the year and the only goal of the first half.
Mameledzija assisted on the second score of the season by fellow junior Alexi Spiratos seven minutes and 43 seconds into the second half and then converted a breakaway opportunity at 66:49 to put the game out of reach. Sophomore Charlie Brey assisted on Mameledzija's 19th goal of the year, which is just two shy of the Foresters' single-season record set by Bryan Porto in 1969. He also passed Tony Mulert (1979-82) for third place in team history with 105 career points and his 45 goals rank second behind Porto's 61.
St. Norbert actually outshot the Foresters 4-3 in the opening period and 8-6 in the final 45 minutes but Lake Forest had a 6-1 edge in shots on goal.
The Green Knights fell to 4-6-2 overall and 1-3-1 in the league this year.
The Foresters will continue conference play against first place Carroll University (7-4-0, 5-0-0 MWC) next Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
