Staff photo by Steve Muscatello New Ulm’s Joey Goeglein tries to get past a Fairmont defender during the first half Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM – One goal in the first half on Tuesday night was enough for Fairmont to hold off New Ulm 1-0 in Big South Conference boys’ soccer action at New Ulm High School.

New Ulm keeper Joshua Rakoczy had two big early saves in the first 20 minutes of play before Fairmont was able to crowd the net and get a ricochet goal in off the foot of Daniel Brummond in the 36th minute for a 1-0 Cardinals lead.

New Ulm was without one of its top attackers in Jack Howard in the first half, which certainly appeared to hurt the Eagles’ chances. Howard came in during the second half, but it wasn’t enough to make a difference on the offensive side of things.

“Jack Howard, he’s our good goal scorer, he’s injured right now, so he was not playing at 100 percent,” New Ulm head coach Dave Dake said. “We pulled up a couple of guys from JV because we knew this and we were trying to give them their shot.”

New Ulm had six shots on goal to Fairmont’s four, but Fairmont always seemed to have an answer when the Eagles swooped in to attack.

New Ulm had a late chance to tie things up in the 76th minute after a corner kick led to a header from Isaac Blumhoefer, but the attempt went too high and bounced over the crossbar.

Dake said that he was still proud of his squad’s defense and ability to keep it a low-scoring game.

“I would put them up against anybody, we just need to get our attacking game straightened out,” he said.

New Ulm (5-4, 3-3) is at Waseca for a 7 p.m. matchup on Thursday.