Blue Devils down 13th ranked Tommies

UW-Stout 1, St. Thomas 0 | Photo Gallery | TV-13

MENOMONIE (October 12, 2016) - UW-Stout scored late in the first half and made the goal stand up as the Blue Devils defeated 13th ranked St. Thomas Wednesday at Nelson Field.

Kelly Conn settled a corner kick by Ryanne Millis in the 36th minute, spun and punched the ball into the goal from about 10 yards out.

"Kelly had a great first touch to settle the ball," Blue Devil coach Ryan Raufus said, "then had a great second touch with the shot."

The Blue Devil (4-7-1) defense, while allowing 13 total shots, kept the Tommies (10-1-1) out of the net all night. The Tommies put eight shots on net, which Stout goalie Lynn Johnson stopped all chances to earn her third shutout of the season and her second consecutive clean sheet. The shutout was Stout's fifth shutout of the season. Stout put five shots on net.

Johnson's play, and the effect it had on the entire Stout team, was not lost on Raufus.

"Lynn was extremely calm tonight and the rest of the team feeds off that," Raufus said. "That just breeds confidence. We had a certain toughness tonight and that helped to carry us through for the full 90 minutes."

The Tommies came out shooting, putting three shots on frame in the first 11 minutes of the contest.

Perhaps the Tommies' best opportunity to score came in the 69th minutes after Stout was called for a hand ball. Hailey Zweber's long shot was true but tailed off at the end and hit the corner of the crossbar, falling away harmlessly.

The win over the Tommies was the second win in program history for the Blue Devils and the second consecutive win. The Blue Devils won last year's contest in St. Paul, Minn., 3-1. Tonight's game, too, was only the second time this season the Tommies trailed in a game and it certainly was the longest they trailed in a game. In St. Thomas' lone tie, they trailed St. Benedict for 24 minutes in the first period.

""This wins gives us a lot of confidence for the final one-third of the season," Raufus said. "We played a lot of teams close this year and this was good for our psyche."

The Blue Devils return to conference action when they travel to UW-Oshkosh, Saturday, Oct. 15.