Captains Justen Thelen (No. 9) and and Christian Thao (7) paced the Tigers to a lopsided 6-0 non-conference win over Section 1AA rival Faribault Thursday, Aug. 26, at Tiger Stadium.Thao's first of two goals at 18:32 of the opening half broke up a scoreless game and opened the offensive floodgates for the winners. Cole Landwehr and Thelen scored goals just 41 seconds apart and Thao added his second two minutes later to give the home team a 4-0 lead at intermission.
Blake Smith and Sam Leske added second half insurance goals for the winners.
"It took awhile to score that elusive first goal," Tiger coach Julian Buss said, "but once Christian punched it in, the rest seemed a little easier. I think all of the time the boys spent working during the off-season has paid off. They are ready."
Thao finished with two goals and Thelen added a goal and a pair of assists in the win over the Falcons, a team ranked ahead of Farmington in the 2009 section seedings.
Landwher added an assist to go with his first half goal; Jeffery Hanson also recorded an assist for the winners.
Goalkeeper Chad Stivers earned a shutout in his varsity debut as every available Tiger player saw action in both halves.
Buss found time to give credit to Tiger Stadium's synthetic turf for his team's impressive first outing.
"It's been such an advantage to utilize the playing field every day over the past few weeks," he said. "How many teams actually get to practice on the field they play on?"
