Men’s soccer came out victorious 3-1 in a three-way battle between St. Thomas, St. John’s and the rain Tuesday.

St. Thomas joins St. John’s atop the MIAC standings after handing them their first conference loss of the season.

“We haven’t lost to them in my four years, so it’s good to be four-and-oh against the Johnnies,” senior goalkeeper Troy Louwagie said.

St. John’s struck early when Kagan Foster scored the team’s lone goal in the first ten minutes.

It took until 37:57 for the Tommies to answer, but forward Jonathan Acevedo found the back of the net off a cross from defender Isaac Eckroth.

“It’s a little bit of a hostile environment,” defender Jack Barry said. “You wait so long for these games, so you’re not going to let weather or any other conditions get in the middle of getting a win.”

In the 40th minute, forward Jake Amey scored unassisted to give the Tommies a 2-1 halftime lead.

Halfway through the second half, Barry surprised the Johnnies’ goalkeeper with an easy tap-in after midfielder George Marty passed it backwards out of the box.

The third goal was accompanied by a knee-sliding celebration from Barry, who was greeted by the entire team on the sideline.

“We kind of had a joke after one of our last games that was in the rain that we’d do that,” Barry said. “When the opportunity presented itself, I was ready for it.”

Despite chippy play, the Tommies were able to close out the game to move to (3-1, 4-3-3 overall) record.

“We’re not going to stop,” coach Jon Lowery said. “This team is hungry. I think some people have forgotten about us the last couple weeks, because we’ve had a very difficult schedule. We’ve been learning about ourselves. The last two games have been reminders that we’re going to have a say in this conversation.”

St. Thomas plays at 1 p.m. Saturday at Bethel (1-2, 6-4 overall).

Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu.