Johnson State men's soccer fell 4-0 to the Castleton University Spartans on Saturday afternoon. The hosts outshot the Badgers 39-9 while also holding the edge in corner kicks 8-2. With the victory, Castleton extends its unbeaten run to six games and improves to 6-2-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Johnson St., meanwhile, drops to 2-5 (1-2 NAC) in the losing effort.
Tietgens took control of the game early on for the Spartans, scoring twice in the first half to hand the squad a 2-0 lead. In the sixth minute of play, Paul Phillips played a ball over the top that could have been collected by the Badgers goalie, but Tietgens snuck in and tapped the ball past the keeper before striking it home to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.
He was at it again just over eight minutes later, finishing Blake Hart's rebound to double the Castleton advantage. Keeper Alex Pakatar made a fantastic double save to deny both of Hart's efforts in the box, but Tietgens was there to tap the rebound into the back of the net and put the Spartans ahead by two.
The senior attacker didn't slow down in the second half either, as he completed the hat trick in the 48th minute before tacking on a fourth score two minutes later to put the hosts in front by four.
Just three minutes into the second half, Castleton was pressuring before a Spartan player was fouled just outside the box, giving the squad a free kick. Tietgens stepped up to the spot and curled home a fantastic finish into the top right corner of the net to push Castleton's advantage to three.
Two minutes later, Tietgens headed home his sixth score of the season to complete his four-goal tally. Nihad Basic crossed a ball from the far flank into the box that Tietgens headed into the back of the net to secure the 4-0 Spartan victory.
In net, Amir Pasic (6-2-1) and Aaron Parker, who made his first appearance of the season, combined to produce a three-save shutout, marking the squad's fifth clean sheet in its last six games. Pakatar suffered the loss for Johnson St. after making five saves in the opening 45 minutes of play, while Berkan Akgul produced four saves in the second half.
Johnson will return to action tomorrow at home for a 2:00pm non-conference tilt against SUNY Canton.