HOUSTON, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran men's soccer team picked up a 2-1 victory over St. Thomas Sunday evening at SaberCats Stadium in Houston, Texas. The Bulldogs improve to 10-4-2 (8-1-1 SCAC) while the Celts fall to 8-6-1 (4-5-1 SCAC). With the win, Texas Lutheran secured a first round bye in the 2025 SCAC Tournament as the Bulldogs will return to the tournament for the first time since 2020 and will be a top two seed for just the second time since joining the conference in 2013.

Sophomore Raymond Palmer (San Antonio/Clark) scored his fourth goal of the season in the 22nd minute to get the Bulldogs on the board. St. Thomas would equalize in the 28th minute and the score would remain a 1-1 draw after the first 45 minutes of play despite 13 shots from the Celts.

Junior Jayden Franke (San Antonio/Johnson) scored the game-winning goal in the second half, his second of the season and second goal in the last three matches, to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead in the 70th minute.

Goalkeeper Ernesto Avila (Houston/Humble) made five saves in goal for the Bulldogs to pick up his tenth win in-goal and earn his seventh shutout of the season.

Overall, the Celts outshot the Bulldogs 19-14 with both teams finishing with six shots on goal.

The Bulldogs conclude the 2025 regular season on Friday, October 31 with a match at Concordia (TX), the host site of the 2025 SCAC Tournament. The match is set to kick off at 7:30 PM with the match being streamed on FloCollege. All streaming and live stats links will be available on tlubulldogs.com.

For all updates on Texas Lutheran Soccer, follow @tlusoccer on X (Twitter) and Instagram and as always you can find updates on all Texas Lutheran athletics on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics on X (Twitter), @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok, and @tlubulldogs on Facebook).