LACEY, Wash. – Washing away a loss to Saint Martin's University two weeks ago, the Montana State University Billings men's soccer team claimed a vengeful 2-0 shutout victory on Thursday afternoon at the SMU Soccer Field for their first Great Northwest Athletic Conference victory of the season.
 
After Saint Martin's tripped up the Yellowjackets 3-0 in Billings on Sept. 29, MSUB returned the favor by shutting out the Saints on their home field in Thursday's one-sided affair. MSUB out-shot SMU 23-8 in the match and placed 13 attempts on frame compared with just four by the hosts. "I'm really happy for the guys, and I thought today was our best performance of the season to date," said MSUB head coach Aaron Champenoy. "I thought we had solid control of the game from the opening whistle through the final seconds. The best part of the match for me was a consistent, fighting effort from everyone for 90 minutes. You could see that pay off in us winning the 50/50 balls and second ball throughout the match."
 
Callum Bryan scored his third goal of the season in the 43rd minute, and Ryan Hanley put the game to bed in the 84th minute with his team-leading fourth goal of the season. The Yellowjackets snapped a five-match winless skid with Thursday's victory, improving to 3-6-2 on the season and 1-3-2 in conference play.
 
The Yellowjackets dominated the match from the opening whistle, holding SMU without a shot attempt until Diego Andrade landed one on frame in the 26th minute. The strike required the first of four saves in the match by MSUB goalkeeper Jeremi Campagnolo, who logged his second clean sheet of the season Thursday.
 
Bryan's goal came at the end of a first half that was owned by MSUB, which out-shot Saint Martin's 13-2 over the first 45 minutes. Kamden Beck carried the ball down the left flank, before delivering a cross inside the box to Bryan. The latter floated a well-placed, one-time effort into the upper-left corner of the net, giving MSUB a deserved 1-0 advantage heading into the break.
 
The Yellowjackets nearly doubled their tally at the outset of the second half, but an apparent goal was called back with an offside flag raised.
 
While MSUB kept the pressure on, the Saints opened up more scoring avenues as the second half wore on as they won three corner kicks in the first 20 minutes of the second.
 
Hanley hinted he was on his way to finding the net in the 67th minute, when he tested SMU goalkeeper Nick Mueller with a strike on frame. It was one of 11 saves that Mueller had to make throughout a busy afternoon between the posts.
 
MSUB's brace came directly after Campagnolo's final save of the match, as the 'Jackets pushed forward with possession and numbers into the attacking third. Pascal Pisarek, who scored his first goal of the season in Saturday's draw at Western Oregon, shook his mark and fed a cross from the goal line back towards the six-yard box. After Hanley's initial attempt was knocked away by Mueller, the sophomore punched home the carom to solidify the victory for the 'Jackets.
 
The Saints held a narrow 6-5 edge in corner kicks in the match, but MSUB's back line handled the threats with confident play on aerial balls. Center backs Guillermo Gonzalez and Kolja Thomas each turned in excellent 90-minute efforts, and senior captain Bryan Maxwell played the full time for the 11th straight match as he has not missed a minute this season. "We moved a little bit of personnel around to try to maximize some tactics, and I thought it went really well today," Champenoy said. "Pascal was great in the midfield complementing Bjarne and Callum, and our back line was a very solid unit the entire game. Now we need to get some recovery in and try to put together two solid performances on the road this weekend with a big test at Seattle Pacific on Saturday."
 
Hanley led all players with career highs of six shots and four on frame, while Bryan landed two of his five shot attempts on target. "I gave the team a goal of trying to get 20 shots and to be much more confident in the attack today, so to see them create more than 20 chances was really positive," Champenoy said after the team's highest single-game shot total of the 2022 season. "I wish we could have been a little bit more clinical in front of net, but we were very solid defensively and limited them to very few legitimate chances on goal."
 
THE BUZZ: Bryan was selected as the St. Vincent Healthcare Player of the Game…it was his first game-winning goal as a Yellowjacket…Beck's assist marked his first point in an MSUB uniform and the seventh of his collegiate career…it was his first assist since Oct. 21, 2021 when he helped his previous school Snow College to a 4-0 win against Colorado Northwestern…Pisarek's assist was the first of his career…MSUB is now 16-12-2 all-time against SMU and is 7-7-1 in road matches.
 
NEXT UP: The 'Jackets complete their four-game road stretch on Saturday with a 4:30 p.m. (Pacific) kickoff at Seattle Pacific University. Live coverage for the GNAC contest will be available online here.