Gustavus Adolphus men’s soccer coach Larry Zelenz said it’s been a long time since his team had an offensive weekend like this one.

On Sunday, the Gusties poured in four first-half goals on their way to a 5-1 victory over Marian College in a nonconference soccer game at the Gustavus Field.

“We’ve got an attacking mode going. We’ve got a group of guys that’s playing pretty nice up top ...,” Zelenz said. “Our attack has been pretty good.”

Senior Ben Eriksson started the offensive outburst in the seventh minute after putting his shot in the net following a cross pass from Bret Vander Streek.

That was only the beginning as Stefan Kolis scored on an unassisted rebound goal in the 18th minute. Ben Ikeda then scored on an assist from Chris Golv in the 33rd minute and Max Malmquist sent a long shot from 25 yards out just under the crossbar and into the net in the 36th minute to give his team a 4-0 halftime lead.

“We’ve had other teams on occasion where we’ve had the same kind of discrepancy in the run of play, but we haven’t been able to put the goals in the back of the net,” Zelenz said. “It’s really great to see us putting the opportunities we have away.”

Marian’s Brad Konen scored on a breakaway in the 52nd minute after Tyler Donahue got his pass through the defense.

Gustavus’ final goal came in the 74th minute on an own goal when Marian’s Sean Brown attempted a header on a hard shot in front of the net. Instead of going up and over the crossbar and out of bounds, the ball went straight into the net.

The Gusties held a 17-3 advantage in total shots and 10-2 advantage in shots on goal. Goalie Luke Strom played about two-thirds of the game before getting relieved by Steve Lundberg.

Sunday’s victory came just two days after the Gusties blew out Dakota Wesleyan 7-0 for a total of 12 goals in two games.

“We just want to do as good as we can to live up to the past,” Eriksson said.

In contrast, Gustavus scored just one goal in its two previous games to begin the season.

“The teams we’ve been playing are capable teams, but they’ve been a little bit young,” Zelenz said. “They’re not going to be the same caliber that we’re going to play in the heat of our conference battle.”

The Gusties were predicted to finish first in the preseason Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference coaches’ poll after winning the conference a year ago.

The first conference test comes Sunday against Concordia in Moorhead.