APPLETON, Wis. -- The Lawrence University men's soccer team has flirted with its win of the season a few times this month, but that wait for the sweet taste of victory ended Saturday night.
    Lawrence had a number of stellar performances as the Vikings carved out a 2-1 nonconference win over Lakeland University on Ron Roberts Field at the Banta Bowl.
    Aidan Greer scored one goal and assisted on the other, and Zach Dale netted the game-winning goal while doing some stellar defending down the stretch. Goalkeeper Nason Lancina made four critical saves to preserve the win for the Vikings.
    Lakeland (1-4-0) took the lead in the 16th minute, but that advantage was short-lived.
    Lawrence's Daito Sho drew a foul in the Lakeland penalty box to set up a penalty kick. Greer stepped up and calmly buried the ball in the back of the net to tie the match at 1-1 at the 16:16 mark. It was the first goal of Greer's Lawrence career.
    The score stayed that way until early in the second half. 
    Greer took a free kick from the left side of the field and drove it across the goal mouth. Dale charged in and headed it past Lakeland goalkeeper Zach Heiman for a 2-1 lead at the 57:22 mark. 
    The Muskies immediately counterattacked, but Lancina came up with two huge saves at point-blank range to turn Lakeland away.
    Lawrence (1-3-2) was a long way from a win at this point, and the Vikings were forced to play a man down for the final 27-plus minutes after a second yellow card was issued to one of the first-year players. 
    Dale and the contingent of Lawrence defenders cleared multiple balls away over the final stretch and did a bit of counterattacking themselves. Late in the contest, Lancina again had to make two saves in succession to preserve the lead. 
    Lancina finished with 10 saves, and Heiman recorded five. The Vikings had a 15-13 edge in shots for the match.