The midfield tandem of Peter Rundquist and Roody Joinvil catapulted Edina past Benilde-St. Margaret’s 2-0 Tuesday night at Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School.

Rundquist and Joinvil each netted a goal for the Hornets, ranked No.4 in the Class 2A coaches’ poll, but coach Dave Jenson said the juniors motivate the team in different ways on and off the pitch.

“(Rundquist’s) a quiet leader,” Jenson said. “He leads on the field because he works so hard…but he’s a quiet leader. He’s not an in-your-face kind of player, but he leads by example.”

Joinvil described Rundquist as “a great player who knows how to play,” while Jenson said Joinvil is more of a vocal leader.

“He’s fun, he’s easy going, he just want’s everyone around him to have a good time and it shows in his play.” Jenson said. “He likes all his teammates to feel good about how they’re playing and he’s just like that off the field too.”

Rundquist seconded his coach’s remarks about Joinvil and called his teammate the pride of Edina’s soccer team.

“Once he gets on the field, we dominate the play,” Rundquist said. “Off the field, he’s such a funny kid, laughs all the time. He cracks us up, and once our team gets down, he will help us.”

Rundquist scored in the 13th minute on a free kick after junior attacker William Schaidler got taken down just yards from the goalie box. Rundquist did his best David Beckham impersonation, placing the ball over a wall of players and into the top left corner. 

Rundquist called the goal “kind of a lucky strike.”

Jenson said it was nice to score on free kick because the Hornets don’t usually convert on them.

“We’ve had a number of those and we haven’t scored on, so it was nice to actually reward that play with a really good shot that we scored on,” Jenson said.  

Five minutes after Rundquist’s goal, Joinvil scored from the left hash marks just a couple of yards outside of the box. Looking like Cristiano Ronaldo, Joinvil hammered the ball into the top right corner. 

Joinvil said he was thinking about the team when he scored.

“I tried to score for my team because I play many games and never score, today I just try to score a goal,” Joinvil said.

Joinvil and Rundquist expect to be key for Edina next year as the Hornets’ 26-man roster has just five seniors.

“If you load (the roster) up with a bunch of seniors, sometimes the next year is really difficult, so I think it’s good for us this year because they’re strong underclassmen and it’s good for our future because it’s nice to have players who have played in a program for one or two or three years,” Jenson said.

With the victory over the No. 4-1A Red Knights, the Hornets (6-1-1) ended a two-game winless streak that included a tie against Wayzata on Sept. 10 and a 2-1 loss against then-No.1-2A -ranked Minnetonka on Saturday. Both Rundquist and Joinvil believe Edina can go on a different run, on that takes the Hornets to the state tournament.

“We’re a confident team right now. Even if we get down, we’ll bring it back up,” Rundquist said.  

Junior midfielders Peter Rundquist and Roody Joinvil each tallied a goal to vault Edina over Benilde-St. Margaret’s 2-0 in a nonconference match on Tuesday night at Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School.

Hornets junior attacker William Schaidler was taken down just yards outside of the goalie box in the 13th minute, and Rundquist nailed the free kick, sending the ball into the top left corner of the net past Red Knights senior goalie Joey Pohle.

Just five minutes later, Joinvil extended the lead when he booted the ball from near the left hash marks into the top right corner of the goal. 

Edina (6-1-1), ranked No. 4 in the Class 2A coaches' poll, seeks its second conference win when facing Hopkins on Thursday. The No. 4-1A Red-Knights (4-3) host Section 5 rival Breck on Saturday.  

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