DENVER, Colo. — Thomas Hoang scored in the 62nd minute as No. 1 Fort Lewis (11-0-0 overall, 7-0-0 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) defeated No. 14 Metro State (7-3-1, 5-3-1) 1-0 today at the Auraria Soccer Complex.

With the Fort Lewis crowd chanting, “Thomas, Thomas, get us a goal,” the senior midfielder responded, drilling a shot from the top of the box off a Roadrunner defender into the net in the 62nd minute to put the Skyhawks on top 1-0. The marker was Hoang’s fourth of the season.

“It was a tough game,” said third-year FLC head coach Oige Kennedy. “We struggled to get going a little bit. Metro definitely had the better going in the early minutes. We managed to fight and get back into the game and get three points.”

Ryan Wirth was huge in goal for the Skyhawks, making eight saves to record his seventh shutout of the season. Two of Wirth’s stops came in the final minute of play.

“Ryan did well,” said Kennedy. “He made some saves that he had to make. The whole back line did well at times to keep Metro out. They have some good strikers and we managed to keep them off the scoresheet.”

As expected in a battle between two nationally-ranked teams, play was spirited and level throughout. The Roadrunners owned a 22-11 advantage in shots and 8-5 in shots-on goal.

Shailer Thomas made three saves for Metro State.

The two teams played to a scoreless draw in the first half, with the Roadrunners owning a 9-5 advantage in shots (4-3 in shots on goal). Metro State had two good scoring chances in the first half, the first when Scott Crawford hit the post from the top of the box in the 30th minute, the other when a goal was nullified by an offside call in the 44th minute.

Fort Lewis continues its road trip at UC-Colorado Springs (5-5-0, 3-3-0) at noon Sunday. The Skyhawks previously defeated the Mountain Lions in a physical 1-0 affair at Dirks Field on Sept. 25.

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