NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The fourth-ranked St. Olaf College men's soccer team won the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) regular-season title outright with a 1-0 victory over Hamline University on Tuesday afternoon at Rolf Mellby Field.

Needing a tie for at least a share of the title and a win to claim the crown outright, St. Olaf (14-1-2, 9-0-0 MIAC) got a late goal from junior Ryan Bechtel in the 77th minute to edge Hamline (9-5-3, 1-5-2 MIAC) in a game played with a feels-like temperature in the low 30s due to winds gusting up to 35 miles per hour. The Oles were ranked No. 4 in the United Soccer Coaches national poll released earlier in the day and moved up to No. 8 in the most recent NCAA Power Index (NPI).

The MIAC regular-season title is the 10th overall (1984, 1992, 1998, 2004, 2011, 2014, 2021, 2023, 2024, 2025) for St. Olaf, six of which have been outright (1984, 1992, 2014, 2021, 2023, 2025), and the fourth in the last five seasons. The 10 titles are the third-most in the conference, as the Oles broke a tie with Saint John's University and the University of St. Thomas for the third spot.

The win also extended St. Olaf's current unbeaten streak to 11 games (10-0-1) and its MIAC regular-season unbeaten streak to 31 games (26-0-5), while locking up the No. 1 seed for the Oles in the MIAC Playoffs, which will be held Nov. 3-8.

St. Olaf outshot Hamline by a 19-10 margin overall and a 7-1 margin in shots on goal but had to wait until Bechtel headed in a corner from first year Tustin Todd in the 77th minute to make the breakthrough. The goal was Bechtel's seventh of the season, while Todd picked up his fifth assist, four of which have come in the last six games.

The Oles thought they had opened the scoring in the 26th minute when sophomore Jack Soares found the back of the net from close range, but the goal was disallowed due to Soares being offsides. Just seconds into the second half, senior Caspar Olseth fired over from close range following a free kick to begin a second 45 minutes that featured a combined 20 shots.

The decisive moment finally came inside the final 15 minutes when Bechtel rose at the near post to power a header in off Todd's corner from the right. From there, St. Olaf was able to see out the final 13-plus minutes. Hamline was reduced to 10 players in the closing minutes due to a second yellow card to a Piper.

St. Olaf will close out its 10-game conference slate with a trip to seventh-ranked Augsburg University for a 4:30 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, Oct. 25.