BATESVILLE, Ark. – Conference play has been a series of ups and downs for Missouri Baptist men's soccer. The Spartans managed to stay on that skyward trajectory in its road trip to Batesville, Ark., upending the defending AMC champion Lyon Scots 2-0 behind a pair of Rasmus Svensson strikes.
 
MBU (10-4, 4-2 in AMC) was beaten last season by Lyon (3-10-3, 2-3-1 in AMC) in a close 1-0 game at Spartan Field and had revenge on its mind this time around. The Spartans had to do it with a gametime decision change to its lineup, as captain and defender Nicolo Tossici was taken out of the starting 11. Junior Giuseppe Verrecchia filled Tossici's spot in the back line and performed valiantly in a game where opportunities on offense were sparse for both sides.
 
Svensson was the leading man on the opposite end of the field for MoBap. The junior scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season in quick succession midway through the first half to put the game firmly in MBU's hands. The first came when defender Ross Wilson lofted a ball from midfield to the left wing, where senior Louie Perez fizzed in a one-timer pass to Svensson, who made no mess of thumping home the opening score (24:08). The Spartans then were the beneficiary of a bit of sloppy Scots play, as the high press MBU has utilized all season paid off with a mistake putting the ball at Svensson's feet. The Swiss-born Swede again put a clinical finish on target that found the bottom left corner (25:41).
 
MoBap would only get off one more shot in the first half and had none in the second half at all, but managed to protect its lead en route to the eighth clean sheet of the campaign. Verrecchia, Wilson and captain for the day in lieu of Tossici's absence Joe Ruane all played the full game and led a defensive effort that limited the Lyon offense to only six shots. The four attempts that were on target were not enough to beat goalkeeper Callum McKinlay, who now has 43 saves this season.
  
The game would get chippy, as 10 cards were given out in total. Lyon midfielder Yannick Zwiebel accrued two yellow cards for a de facto red and ejection 13 minutes after half, putting the Scots a man down and killing most of their hopes of getting back into the game.

"Important 3 points today," head coach Jake Alvernia said. " We played a really good first half and it paid dividends. Rasmus [Svensson] was very clinical and put the game out of reach. Giuseppe [Verrecchia] stepped in for Nicolo [Tossici] who took a knock did brilliantly."
 
Missouri Baptist can extend the current winning streak to three if it holds serve at home during Homecoming week. The Spartans will face off with Hannibal-LaGrange at Spartan Field on Wednesday, Oct. 26th at 1 p.m. in the final home game of the regular season.