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MINOT, N.D. - In just the second home post season game in the Minot State University's soccer team history the Beavers were able to control the game from start to finish defeating Bemidji State 3-1.
 
Controlling the ball early and often the MSU offense was able to apply pressure due to the balanced play they have shared with their defense all season. Head coach Jason Spain credits his back line and his forward, Ninfa Ramirez, as being the best in the country.
 
Bemidji State wasn't able to prove him wrong as they were held to just four shots on goal and were only able to score on a free kick while Ramirez (F, Jr., Perris, Calif.) put up three points.
 
The first goal of the game, scored by Ramirez, came at the 31-minute mark and set the pace for the remainder of the match.
 
"It was really exciting," Ramirez said. "When we get that first goal it really pumps up our team and really gets us going. I think it was more towards the middle of the half and we were starting to die down a little bit, but once I was able to put one in and Taryn scored another goal I think it kept our team going, kept them pushing."
 
Pushing is exactly what the Beavers did as they were able to find a second goal less than seven minutes after their first with a shot from Taryn Love (F, Fr., Minot, N.D.).
 
"My defender, she stepped to me, I saw a gap and Ninja saw it too," Love said. "She sent the ball straight through, it was a perfect ball. My touch was a little outside, but I knew that I had the opportunity. [The goalkeeper] was on her front post so I had to get it on her back post or over her."
 
With Ramirez assisting the goal, and recording her third point of the match, she now has 34 points on the season, the most in MSU history. Breaking another record will be senior defender Emilie Rebelo (Sacramento, Calif.) who will have played in the more games, 77, than any other Beaver when Minot State takes on Augustana in the second round of the NSIC Tournament.
 
Rebelo, who scored the third goal of the game, was also part of the defensive unit that held Bemidji State to just seven total shots throughout the 90 minutes. Her play, along with seniors Breanne Hatfield (Manteca, Calif.) and Haley Lolmaugh (Phelan, Calif.) and freshman Ashley Franco (Long Beach, Calif.), helped the Beavers secure a victory and hold a team that averages close to two goals a game to just one.
 
"I thought we did a great job defensively," Spain said. "I thought our backline was great, I though Haley was amazing tonight. [Sarah] Stram is just an amazing striker and then [Rachel] Norton and their midfielder is good, but we kept rotating and rotating and rotating. I think that won out in the end."
 
The MSU defense was able to play so well due to what they had seen from Bemidji State earlier in the season and what they had worked on in practice.
 
"I know the first time we played them something that we noticed was that they like to switch a lot," Lolmaugh said. "In practice we made sure to attack our runners or we could end up trading, just make sure to discuss it. We were all on the same page back there. They were really fast so we had to make sure to talk and follow our marks."
 
Minot State will look to continue its success as the team travels to Mankato, Minn. to take on the second seeded Augustana on Friday, November 6 at 11 a.m.