The Saint Xavier Men’s Soccer team traveled to Palos Heights, and got their second win of the season against the Trinity Christian Trolls. This win was very significant for the Cougars. SXU have not only been winless in their last two games, but scoreless as well. It was also was their first conference game of the season, and this would be an important opportunity to start off 1-0 in CCAC play. The win gave the Cougars an important win and gave them a great start in the conference.
Saint Xavier did not look great early on, yet again being held scoreless in the first half. The Cougars really struggled, and it looked like the tie would last the entirety of the game. At this point SXU hadn’t scored a goal in their last 269 minutes of game time, and this trend looked like it would continue.
However, Fabian Lopez would put all these doubts to the side with his goal in the 57th minute. This offensive onslaught would continue, and in the 69th minute the Cougars would put the game on ice. Christian Nava, who came into the game as a substitute scored his goal to put the Cougars up 2-0 with only 20 minutes left to play.
The SXU victory only happened due to a stellar second half. The Cougars played well for much of the second half. Dominating the possession, keeping the ball from the Trolls in the. third for much of the second half. This manifested itself in terms of corner kicks where St. Xavier managed to get six in the second half, as opposed to only having two in the first 45 minutes. While the shot totals were the exact same for each team in both halves. It is clear that the quality of these shot attempts were not. SXU managed to get three shots on goal, two of them goals. Saint Ambrose ended the half with four shots total, but not a single shot ended up on goal.
A standout performer for Saint Xavier would be their goaltender, Tony Otero. Otero did not have to do too much in the second half, but in the first half managed to make two important saves, which were key in Otero keeping a clean sheet.
Fabian Lopez, and Christian Nava also had really good games as they both ended up scoring. Alex Noyola, and Victor Valencia were important in setting up key chances. As they were crucial in setting up both goals, each ended up with an assist. Cesar Correa also had a very good game, but ended up getting very unlucky. Correa put himself in three very good chances to score, however, he didn’t end up finishing on any of the chances, missing the net twice, and forcing the goalkeeper to make a tough save.
The Cougars next game will be on Wednesday at 8:00. It will be their conference home opener against the St.Ambrose Fight Bees, where they will look to extend their current perfect record in conference to 2-0.