BOX SCORE
BLUFFTON, Ohio -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology won a share of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference men's soccer regular season championship with a 2-0 victory at Bluffton University on Saturday.
The Fightin' Engineers won their second consecutive HCAC regular season title and their third in the last four years. Rose-Hulman has won five regular season conference championships in eight seasons under head coach Sean Helliwell.
Rose-Hulman has earned the No. 2 seed for this week's HCAC Tournament and will host Earlham College on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The winner of Tuesday's two semifinal matches will square off at the site of the best remaining seed on Saturday afternoon for the conference tournament title.
Freshman Erik Eksten put Rose-Hulman on the board in the 11th minute, with the assist to senior Dieter Schultz. The Fightin' Engineers recorded an insurance goal in the 36th minute on a score by sophomore Austin Webb. The squad outshot Bluffton 15-11 in the match.
Rose-Hulman relied on its defense to preserve the shutout and improve to 12-2-4 overall and 7-0-2 in conference play. Sophomore Carter Wright and junior Michael Lawrence combined on the shutout with six saves.
The winner of this week's HCAC Tournament will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
