MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (3-3-1, 1-1-1 NSIC) claimed their first NSIC win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory at MSU Moorhead (1-5-1, 0-2-1 NSIC) on Friday afternoon.
 
CSP will look to make it two road wins in a row on Sunday as they travel to Northern State for a 1 p.m. start.

"Moorhead are a strong well coached side but, we started the first half very brightly and kept possession very well, " said head coach Steve Bellis. "That certainly helped us control the game and create some strong chances," Bellis added. "Second half we managed the game way better than we have all season, and I felt we showed some maturity in how we won this game. We are super excited to get back at it on Sunday."
 
Sophomore goalkeeper Kayla Matuzak tallied her second shutout of the season as she stopped all four Dragon shots on goal as the team registered their third clean sheet overall and fifth game allowing a goal or less in the first seven this year.
 
Sophomore defender Belle Abruzzo played the role of creator as she collected her first two career assists in the win, both coming on free kicks. She added a shot on goal as well in the contest.
 
A pair of seniors were the recipients of those feeds as Tori Miller scored her second goal of the season for the team's first goal before Katie Anderson scored her third of the year and 25^th of her career. Anderson's goal moved her within two goals of Arielle Stimson and Hillary Johnson for second all-time in program history.
 
CSP seemed to have the better of the play for much of the contest as they finished with 57% of the possession, with 70% of which coming in their offensive end of the field. Concordia also put up a 10-7 edge in total shots as well as a 3-2 edge in corners.
 
The Golden Bears didn't take long to open the scoring as Abruzzo lofted in a free kick from the near side touch line in the ninth minute that eventually found the left knee of Miller. The senior made the most of the opportunity as the senior defender redirected the cross into the back of the net to give Concordia a 1-0 lead with the first shot of the game for either team.
 
After several more shots throughout the middle portion of the opening half, Anderson doubled the lead off another well-placed cross from Abruzzo in the 39^th minute. This time on a free kick from even further out on the far side of the field, Abruzzo launched a deep ball right out in front of goal to set up an Anderson header that beat the keeper to make it 2-0.
 
In total, CSP managed a 7-3 advantage in shots in the first half with two of their three attempts on goal ending up in the back of the net.
 
In the game's final 45 minutes, Concordia limited the goal scoring opportunities for the hosts as they allowed just four MSUM shots, with Matuzak saving both efforts on net.