PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Benedictine University broke through for two goals in less than five minutes midway through the first half and the Lakeland University men's soccer team was defeated 5-0 Saturday afternoon at Taylor Field in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference match.

A competitive game for 20 minutes turned lopsided in a disappointing day for the Muskies, who were unable to build on a close loss earlier in the week at perennial conference power Milwaukee School of Engineering and fell well behind frequent conference contender Benedictine. Lakeland dropped to 2-5-1 overall and is now 1-3 in the NACC, while the Eagles improved to 2-5-1 overall and earned their first league win, moving to 1-2-1.

Benedictine took the lead in the 22nd minute with a quick tic-tac-toe, with Victor Antomez crossing a pass into the middle to Manav Soorma, who quickly found Habtamu Kruiswyk for the first goal of the match. The Eagles then scored less than five minutes later when Nick Soto hit a free kick left to right that got to Soorma in the box, and he put it in from 10 yards out.

Benedictine scored again just over six minutes into the second half, when defender Mark Sklarczyk sent a long pass ahead that Soto was able to receive and score. Reserve Joseph Duarte then added two more goals for the Eagles, first just past the midway point of the second and then his second coming with just over two minutes left.

The Muskies put some early pressure on the Eagles in the first half but then struggled for chances until the late 10 minutes. T.J. Sanusi (Jr.-Chicago, Ill.) had a shot from straight on that went just right of goal in the 80th minute, and Tony Genco (Fr.-Columbus, Wis.) from the far post headed a corner kick from Triston Robb (So.-Herriman, Utah) that Benedictine goalkeeper Mateo Reyes had to stop.

Zach Heiman (Jr.-Racine, Wis.) made four saves in goal and Andy Garcia Arreguin (Sr.-Worthington, Minn.) also added one save after coming on for the final four minutes. Reyes made four saves for the shutout for Benedictine, which outshot Lakeland 17-9, including a 10-4 lead in shots on goal.

Lakeland goes on the road for its next game Wednesday when it travels to face Dominican University at 4 p.m. in River Forest, Ill.