WICHITA FALLS, Texas - There's just nothing like playing in front of over a 1,000 rowdy fans at the best small college soccer facility in the country.

No. 20 Midwestern State needed all the support it could get and a little divine intervention didn't hurt either Friday night as the Mustangs extended their unbeaten string at the MSU Soccer Field to 16 games with a 1-0 win over Incarnate Word.

"We had a great crowd tonight and it helped the guys playing a man down for as long as we did," MSU coach Doug Elder said. "Incarnate Word is a great and well-coached team. We feel pretty good to get the result."

Senior forward Kyle Kmiec banged a shot from 15 yards out off of Incarnate Word goalkeeper Ryan Eschenburg in the second minute of the match and the ball squirted through to the sliding Nick Auditore to give the Mustangs an early 1-0 lead.

Five minutes later, Kmiec earned back-to-back cards for dissent to for MSU to go the final 84 minutes of regulation a man down.

Once again, a defense spearheaded by center backs Ryan Spence and Allen Thomson stood tall to the task as the Cardinals were limited to eight shots with just two falling on frame.

"Spence was a key player for us tonight," Elder said. "He always found himself in position and made the smart play. And he won a lot of balls in the air."

MSU goalkeeper Raul Herrera needed only two saves to notch his seventh shutout of the season for NCAA Division II's most stingy defense.

The shutout was also the Mustangs' seventh-straight blanking which tied a school record set during the 1990 season.

"Our defense played phenomenal," Elder said. "I'm very proud of the defense."

But it was a ball that neither Herrera or the rest of the MSU defense had to make a play that posed the biggest threat of the match.

Incarnate Word's Jamie Scope was taken down in the box in the 88th minute, but his penalty kick caromed high off of the left post to preserve the win and the shutout for the Mustangs, who improved to 7-1-2.

The win avenged a 1-0 season opening loss on an own goal at Incarnate Word as the Cardinals fell to 3-3-3.

"We played well tonight under some difficult circumstances," Elder said. "This win should springboard us to play well on Sunday."

The Mustangs play host to St. Edward's Sunday afternoon at the MSU Soccer Field. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.