Washington University in St. Louis used a late first half goal to jump ahead and held strong in the second half to beat the University of Rochester men's soccer team 1-0 on a cold Friday night at Fauver Stadium.
 
Michael Flowers scored for the Bears (9-4-1) at 40:17 when he fired a hard 20 yard shot off a nice touch pass from teammate Jeremy Kirkwood.  Wash U's defense played exceptional in the second half keeping the Yellowjackets (8-3-3) off the board.
 
The win puts the Bears in third place in the UAA standings with 9 points (3-2), one behind Carnegie Mellon and Brandeis who both won in other UAA action on Friday.  Rochester sits with six points (1-1-3) in seventh place.
 
Washington controlled the pace of play in the early going, generating scoring opportunities and shots on goal in the first 20 minutes.  Flowers got free in the box at 11:19, but his shot was deflected high of the net by Scott Garfing, UR's keeper.  Sophomore Pay Estakhri for the Bears also had a great chance, but his shot eight minutes later went just wide of the Rochester net.
 
UR's Max Eberhardt had the home teams' first good chance when he cracked a ball that sailed just high of the WU net at the 30 minute mark.  Teammate Alex Swanger also looked for a score two minutes later, but with the Wash U keeper out of the net, the sophomore couldn't tap home the score.
 
In the 41st minute, Flowers got on the board when he blasted his shot into the lower right corner of the net.  The play was set up by Kirkwood's pass.  The junior Kirkwood, reigning UAA Offensive Player of the Week, was causing havoc among the UR defense in the minutes leading up to the goal getting in open space and shooting multiple shots at the UR net.
 
Washington went into defense mode in the second half, looking to hang on to the win and that strategy seemed to work at the Bears held UR off the scoreboard.
 
Rochester did have chances in the 2nd session though, with chances coming from UR's front line of Jack Thesing, Max Fan, Nick Pastore and Shane Dobles.  In the 58th minute, Fan had a shot off a throw in get past Washington's keeper Jon Jebson, but defender Jack Fischer was there to sweep the ball out of harms way.
 
In the last minute of play, UR had a couple scoring plays foiled by Jebson who punched away a couple of long throw in's.  Jebson finished with three saves while Garfing made two stops for Rochester.
 
On Sunday, both teams are back in action with UR hosting Chicago at 1:30 pm and Washington traveling to take on Case Western Reserve at 1:30.