RIPON, Wis. - On what was National Coaches Day around the country, Ripon Head Men's Soccer Coach Marco Rhein earned arguably the biggest win of his coaching career Wednesday afternoon. The Red Hawks defeated Saint Mary's (Minn.) 3-2, thanks to a pair of second half goals, which pushed them to victory.

Ripon (3-9-1) opened up the scoring in the 33rd minute wehn Josh Prill took a pass from Esteban Borja Pena to break a scoreless tie. That lead didn't last long, as Saint Mary's tied things up four minutes later on a goal by Landon Pendelton.

After entering the second half still tied at one, Alex Casarez gave Ripon the lead for good on a Free Kick in the 54th minute. Eli Dietzel would add a much needed insurance goal in the 87th minute. Saint Mary's would make things interesting, pulling within a single goal with just two and a half minutes remaining on a goal by Eli Szymanski to make the Red Hawk faithful squirm in their seats a bit, but the Ripon defense would hold during the final few minutes to secure the victory.

Ripon Goal Keeper Kalen Narance played all 90 minutes between the pipes, making five saves. His counterpart, Daniel Sessler, also played all 90 minutes, recording four saves.

The Red Hawks will try to build on this momentum on Saturday when they'll jump back into conference play against Monmouth (Ill.). That game will begin at 1:30 p.m. at Prairie Field in Ripon, and can be seen live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/ripon/.