Men's soccer draws one, wins two
by Donald Smith
The Metropolitan
The men's soccer team could describe their weekend in one phrase: bare to bountiful. The Roadrunners, who played the Colorado School of Mines Orediggers to a 0-0 tie on Friday, unloaded 48 hours later on the Colorado Christian Cougars 9-0.
Metro (11-3-1, 5-2-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) went into Friday's game looking to extend their two-game win streak when they faced the Orediggers (6-3-4, 3-2-2 RMAC). Both teams also had regional rankings on the line for their second meeting of the season.
The two squads played a very tough and physical game as teams combined for 25 fouls (Metro 12, Mines 13) and three yellow cards (Metro 1, Mines 2) in the stagnant contest.
Offensively, the two teams combined for 31 shots, forcing keepers David McReavy and Kevin Galloway to make five and nine difficult saves, respectively, keeping the game deadlocked at zero. Though both teams wanted the three points, they played 110 minutes and earned one point each for their efforts.
Just two days later, the Roadrunners took advantage of their offense as Colorado Christian goalkeeper Andrew Kurtz faced 39 shots and made 13 saves. Despite the effort from Kurtz, the Cougars fell 9-0.
The Roadrunners scored three goals in the first half and doubled it in the final 45 minutes of the contest.
Starters Phillip Owen, who tallied two goals and an assist in the game; Antonio Porras, who had a goal and three assists; Danny Bills; David Gordon; and Preston Borrego helped to crush Colorado Christian (0-10, 0-8 RMAC).
Although the starters were able to put a hurt on the Cougars' defense, the bench also made contributions by scoring three of the team's nine goals. Danny Holland scored once, Naugi Sabbagh had a goal and assist, Jonathan Peters had a goal and Custodio Avalos had two assists to round out Metro's scoring.
"It was kind of like practice ... we needed to step up and score some goals and we did," said junior forward Sabbagh about the Roadrunners' performance against the Cougars.
The 'Runners have taken 22 of 27 points during their current nine-game home stand, impacting both their conference and regional prowess.
"We're pretty happy about that," said sophomore forward Owen. "I think with one loss and one tie (in nine games) we're satisfied."
"We've got a way better organization--we've got a new coaching staff-that's definitely making us a lot more confident and we're going out there and definitely putting (games) away," said sophomore midfielder Gordon regarding reasons he feels this team should make the Regionals.
The men's soccer team takes its four-game unbeaten streak on the road when they face CU-Colorado Springs on Oct. 22. They play their final regular-season road game against CSU-Pueblo Oct. 24, then come home to finish their season when they play against Regis on Oct. 27 and Fort Lewis on Oct. 29. |
