ST. LOUIS – Missouri Baptist men's soccer found itself on the wrong end of the final score twice at the hands of American Midwest Conference foe Harris-Stowe State (HSSU) last season. The Spartans exorcised those demons with a 1-0 win on Wednesday afternoon.
 
The game was one MBU (8-3, 2-1 in AMC) needed following its defeat to No. 16 Williams Baptist over the weekend. HSSU (5-4-2, 0-1-2 in AMC) turned the contest into a dragged out, physical affair that saw no goals coming against the run of play.
 
The Spartans got the lone goal of the game and the lead early on. Following a foul to junior Jack Carney in the penalty area, leading Spartan goalscorer Marko Dordevic stepped up and placed the spot kick routinely into the net (16:11). The goal put Dordevic at 10 on the season and now just one off the pace of the AMC lead held by Central Baptist's Daniel Pinkney and HSSU's Filip Pavlovic at 11.
 
MoBap were able to control the tempo for much of the game after getting the advantage. The MBU attack outshot the Hornets 5-to-0 in the first half and 8-to-4 overall. Senior Joe Ruane was instrumental in the midfield for the Spartans, playing all 90 minutes and dictating the flow on several occasions so much that the Hornets had no choice but to foul him.
 
The Spartan defense bottled up leading scorer Pavlovic for no shots in the game. While MBU pushed for but didn't get an insurance tally, the performance from defense to offense proved enough to secure the one-goal win.
 
"One-nil is a tight game," head coach Jake Alvernia said. "[But] we had a lot of the game today… I thought we created… I thought we were defensively sound. I think the mentality right now is [every] next game is a final. We just need to stick to the course."
 
That course that Alvernia mentions is one that comes to a head on Saturday. MoBap will face off with rival Columbia College that sets up on paper as a must-win for both sides if they want hope of catching Williams Baptist. Both Columbia and Missouri Baptist have now lost to the Eagles and sit behind at second and third in the AMC standings, respectively.
 
"Our goal is very clear, we leave [Columbia] with three points," Ruane said in the postgame. "We're not playing for draws. We're not playing safe. We're going to go there and try to take the win."
 
MBU will depart in the morning on Saturday for Columbia, Mo. for the all-important game against the Cougars, kicking off at 2:30 p.m.