BROOKINGS — Katelyn Beulke’s goal 41 seconds into the game helped South Dakota State win its Summit League home opener over Kansas City 1-0 at the Fishback Soccer Park on Thursday night.

The win helped SDSU improve to 9-2-1 on the season and 2-0-0 in conference play ahead of Sunday’s game at St. Thomas. Head coach Brock Thompson praised his team for its fast start to the game and how the Jacks have performed during its five-game winning streak and nine-game unbeaten streak.

“I just love coming to train with this team every day,” Thompson said. “They’re connected. They’re driven. And it’s a talented group that can do a lot of things.”

Thursday’s game started quickly as the Jacks gained control from the opening kick. Mia Bosch and Laney Murdzek took the first two shots of the night but Beulke was there to clean up for her fifth goal of the season with Murdzek getting credit for the assist.

While the Jacks seized momentum on the scoreboard, Thompson believes the Roos gained a boost as they pressed for the tying goal in the first half.

“I think the goal maybe took some of our energy and focus and kind of energized them,” Thompson said. “There was kind of a lull in the first half and then towards the end of the first half we got rolling again and I was proud of the way we played in the second half.”

The Jacks didn’t have as many shots in the second half, firing 11 of its 19 total shots in the first 45 minutes, but they continued to generate chances with five of their nine corner kicks coming in the final half.

It was the continuation of how the Jacks have performed offensively this year, coming into Thursday’s game with a goal in nine straight halves and three or more goals in six of its last nine games.

“I think we’ve got dangerous players…whether they’re coming out of midfield or our forwards, so we’re a hard team to defend,” Thompson said. “One of the things if you scout is that we just have a lot of dangerous players, so that makes it hard to defend and really allows us to attack in different ways.”

As the game went into the final minutes, the Jacks put their defensive ability on display helping Emma Knack and Stephanie Leckwold earn the shutout.

“When we talk about how we defend, it really starts with our forwards,” Thompson said of his team’s defensive strategy. “It starts in the moment the ball is lost. And if our whole team has the right mentality, we’re a really good team defensively, but we always start defensively from our forwards on back and then we’ve got good, experienced defenders to clean things up.”

Hailee Christensen led Brookings with four shots while Bosch, Beulke and Murdzek each had three shots with two shots on goal. Kaycee Manding and Taryn Hettich each had a shot with a shot on goal and Avery Murdzek had a shot.

Kansas City had six total shots while goalkeeper Maddie Sibbing had seven saves.