DE PERE – St. Norbert College claimed its first-ever Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference championship in any sport with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Milwaukee School of Engineering at Schneider Stadium.
 
The Green Knights, who joined the NACC on a full-time basis on July 1, won their first title by topping the Raiders in their last game in a grueling four-match stretch over the last seven days. It is the men's soccer program's 11th conference title, with the first 10 coming in the Midwest Conference.
 
The match was delayed about 40 minutes due to lightning in the De Pere area, but once it got started the Green Knights came out and had solid pressure throughout the first half. St. Norbert got the game's only goal when Mitchell Scholz got a pass ahead to Joe Meade, who had slipped behind the Raider defense. Meade's run led to a shot angled perfectly inside the far-right post for his fifth goal of the season at 17:23.
 
St. Norbert continued the pressure the rest of the half, but MSOE goalkeeper Ron Marchionna turned away two Grade A scoring chances off shots by Caden Etzel in the 26th minute and Scholz a minute later to keep the score 1-0 at halftime.
 
The Green Knights were able to make that goal hold up in the second half despite heavy pressure from MSOE, especially in the game's final 15 minutes. MSOE had a shot go wide in the 83rd minute. The Raiders also had a corner kick, their only one of the match, in the 87th minute, but St. Norbert was able to clear.
 
St. Norbert outshot MSOE 15-9 for the match, including 10-3 in the first half. The Green Knights also had six corner kicks to the Raiders' one. The match was cleanly played, with MSOE outfouling St. Norbert 8-5.
 
Daniel Yurk made three saves for St. Norbert, while Marchionna made three stops for the Raiders.