Box Score Trevor Talleksen (6) used his head. Abbai Habte used his foot. That combination came through to lift Hamline's men's soccer team to a critical 2-1 victory over St. Thomas Saturday at Paterson Field. Dean Isaacson continued his impressive freshman season in goal with five saves as the Pipers moved into a three-way tie for fourth place with a 2-1-1 league record (3-5-2 overall). 

The visitors got off the mark quickly, scoring off a corner kick just 2:17 into the game. It stayed that way until 31:33 when Tallaksen headed a rebound home for this third goal of the season. 

Things remained deadlocked until the 76th minute. That's when Habte converted a penalty kick -- the first one awarded to HU this year -- to give Hamline the lead for good.(It marked the second year in a row Abbai has provided the difference in a win over UST.)  Isaacson and the Piper defense took it from there, fending off UST thrusts in the late stages. St. Thomas had a 10-5 edge in shots for the game. Habte took three and Talleksen had the other two for the Pipers. 

The Pipers have little time to revel in this one. They have a non-conference date Monday night at Northwestern (MN). Game time is 7:00 p.m. HU returns to the conference wars on Saturday, October 10 at St. Mary's (3-4-2, 0-2-2 MIAC).