BILLINGS, Mont. – Earning their fourth clean sheet in the past five outings, the Montana State University Billings men's soccer team held off Concordia University 1-0 Thursday afternoon at Herb Klindt Field in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference game. Andres Perez scored his team-leading fifth goal in the 20^th minute, as the 'Jackets evened the season series against the Cavaliers and won their second straight contest.
 
The Yellowjackets (8-5-2, 5-2-1 GNAC) remained just three points shy of conference leader Western Washington University in the standings with the win. Liam Knox and Shantik Bedrosian assisted on Perez's game winning goal.
 
Concordia (7-6-0, 4-4 GNAC) stayed in fourth place with the loss with 12 points. CU is still one point shy of Simon Fraser University.
 
"Today was overall a good performance for us," commented head coach Thomas Chameraud. "Other than the first 10-15 minutes of the game, I thought we were in good control of the game. We learned from our mistakes the first time we played Concordia and we reduced the space between the lines and put more pressure on their defensive line. Then we had to deal with Concordia's long balls and Samuele (Folla), Andrew (Rivera), Luca (Battistotti), Bryan (Maxwell), and Liam (Knox) did a very good job winning their aerial battles. We achieved our main goal, which was to finish better than last year. Playing Saint Martin's on Saturday should be another tough game, so we will turn our attention to preparing."
 
The Yellowjackets held a 12-7 shot advantage with seven shots on goal against CU goalkeeper Kenneth Symmes. Meanwhile, the MSUB defenders held CU to just a pair of shot attempts in the first half and freshman goalkeeper Jessy Martin was there to make all three saves in the game to collect his GNAC leading fifth shutout. Defenders Luca Battistotti, Liam Knox, Bryan Maxwell, and Andrew Rivera all played a full 90 minutes to help the 'Jackets secure the clean sheet.
 
MSU Billings generated scoring chances sporadically throughout and earned nine corner opportunities compared to six for Concordia. Perez and Bedrosian led the team with a pair of shots on goal apiece. Perez played 77 minutes to lead the forward group and Christian Thode contributed 31 minutes off the bench.
 
UP NEXT: The Yellowjackets celebrate senior day Saturday, November 2 against Saint Martin's at 3 p.m. marking the final game at Yellowjacket Field this season. The team finishes the regular season with three road contests, including a matchup against conference leader Western Washington. The 'Jackets must take first place in the GNAC to advance to the post-season.
 
THE BUZZ: Jessy Martin was named St. Vincent Healthcare player of the game…The Yellowjackets fell 4-1 to the Cavaliers on October 5, their widest margin of loss this season but evened up the series Thursday night…MSUB improved to 2-1-1 on its current homestand. Two of the scheduled home games were moved across town to Herb Klindt Field on the campus of Rocky Mountain College due to weather related causes.