Staff photo by Ari Selvey New Ulm’s Micah Scotting (14) chases down a ball during a Big South Conference boys soccer game against Worthington Tuesday at New Ulm High School.

NEW ULM — Methodious Amoah scored two goals as New Ulm defeated Worthington for the first time in 10 years with a 3-1 victory Tuesday in a Big South Conference crossover boys soccer game.

“My teammates were telling me this would be an important game,” Amoah said. “The entire day I was just thinking we needed to get that loss out of our heads from Marshall and just lock in this game, and we all came and we gave it to them. We had a good game.”

Worthington is coming off of a Class AA State Championship last season and has won the section three years in a row. It was also Worthington’s first loss of the season as they dropped to 7-1-2 on the year.

New Ulm suffered an own goal in just the fourth minute of the game but scored three goals in the first half to make up for it.

“When we got the own goal for the first goal, I could tell the guys were kind of disheartened,” New Ulm head coach Timothy Plocher said. “I tried to put some fire back into them and say, ‘Hey accidents happen, people make mistakes, we have to get back into this one, we’re not out here.’ So we did hold them to zero goals technically.

“But the guys were awesome. The passing was amazing, the defense was awesome, Jens [Quist] saving the [penalty kick] was amazing. It was just so much good teamwork, and we really needed this after the Marshall loss.”

Along with Amoah’s goals, Jackson Ocampo had a goal and two assists, while Josh Shaneman had an assist. Jens Quist had 18 saves on the day.

New Ulm now improves to 8-2 on the year, getting the taste of a 3-0 loss to Marshall on Thursday out of their mouths after wins over Mankato Loyola on Monday and now Worthington.

“Our last practice was last week Wednesday,” Plocher said. “We haven’t actually had a real practice with Homecoming on Friday. We had a longer weekend and then we had Loyola yesterday [Monday]. We knew what we had to work on with Loyola. I talked to the guys ahead of time. I said, ‘Hey, focus on our possession in the middle.’ I actually switched up our formation specifically to counter the middle because I knew that’s what they were going to target. And we really shut them down there, and it worked out. They’re going to have to try to counter that going forward.”

After the own goal in the fourth minute, New Ulm corrected course with a lead pass from Ocampo laid out beautifully for Amoah, who outran the defense to score in the 11th minute.

“We’ve been talking all practice,” Amoah said. “If he sees me and I see him, we’re going. I saw, him, he gave me a look, and I was going right away. They didn’t see it. The goal was there, I took it and I scored. They couldn’t stop it.”

Less than a minute later, Amoah scored his second goal on another assist from Ocampo, sneaking a ball past a sliding defender to take advantage of an out-of-position goalie to go up 2-1. New Ulm kept up strong pressure on offense, but Worthington was able to get a few shots on goal as well, with Quist saving several and defender Cole Frederick blocking a header right at the goal line in the 15th minute to prevent a score. New Ulm also was able to get several offsides calls on Worthington as the defensive line stayed up and were disciplined with their dropbacks.

New Ulm got its third goal in the 24th minute, with Ocampo shooting a goal off of the left upright, just getting it past the goalkeeper for a 3-1 lead. Shaneman provided the assist on the goal.

The defense stayed strong in the second half, and though a few yellow cards were issued to both teams, it didn’t cost the Eagles as they pitched a second-half shutout.

“They came out really strong for sure,” Amoah said. “So we had to slow it down and think about what we were doing and just control the ball better. Because we were panicking a little at the start of the second half, so I’m glad we locked in and kept the ball more in the second half.”

Part of keeping Worthington scoreless was a penalty-kick save by Quist in the 43rd minute, blocking the shot low and to his left. Ocampo also got a few more quality looks at shots, but his shot in the 63rd minute bounced off of the crossbar and his shot in the 74th minute missing just right on an open goal. The score stayed at 3-1 as the final buzzer sounded and New Ulm came away with the historic win.

New Ulm hosts Waseca next on Thursday.