On Tuesday, October 20, the Saint Xavier Men’s Soccer team travelled to Palos Heights, IL to take on Trinity Christian College. The game saw that the Cougars be held scoreless in the first half, but go on a scoring spree in the second half.
The first half saw both team get opportunities to score, with TCC being the first to get a shot on goal in the 19th minute. That shot was saved by goalkeeper Frank Valle. But from there, the Cougars would get the majority of the scoring chances, as they possessed the ball and got themselves into great positions to score.
Unfortunately for them, bad luck and good goalie play by TCC’s Fernando Avalos prevented the Cougars from putting a ball into the back of net. With both goalies playing well, the score went into halftime tied at 0-0.
The second half started out with the Cougars, once again, dominating the play and getting multiple shots on goal. Unlike the first half though, the Cougars finally broke through in the 61st minute, thanks to a goal by forward Marco Gutierrez to take a 1-0 lead. They wouldn’t stop there, as they scored in the 72nd minute to extend their lead to 2-0.
The goal was scored by forward Orlando Tapia. On their second straight shot on goal, the Cougars added another goal to their lead, making the score 3-0. That goal once again came off the foot of Tapia.
On their third straight shot on goal, the Cougars continued to pile on the goals, scoring another one to essentially put the game out of reach at the score of 4-0. The goal was scored by midfielder Ricardo Aldape.
A goal by TCC in the 81st minute cut their deficit to 4-1, but a late goal by substitute Erik Diaz in the 89th minute put the final stamp on this game and gave the Cougars a big 5-1 win.
The Cougars look to keep winning and cap off a great week with a win on Saturday. On Saturday, October 24, the Saint Xavier Men’s Soccer would play their second game of week, this time at home against Calumet-St. Joseph.
The Cougars shut out their conference foe in this game thanks to great play by players that have constantly been great all season long. The game started out very slow as both teams possessed the ball about evenly, while not producing many shots toward the net.
This changed in the 31st minute when defender Ivan Valencia recorded the first shot on goal in the game for either side. While the shot was saved, the Cougars capitalized on the momentum that they had going for them in the 32nd minute, when forward Orlando Tapia scored to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead.
After giving up a goal, Calumet made an attempt to come back and tie the game. However, on their only shot on goal in the first half, goalkeeper Frank Valle made the save in 34th minute to preserve his team’s 1-0 lead. In the 41st minute, Tapia got another opportunity to score, but a save by Calumet’s goalkeeper sent the game into halftime with the Cougars ahead 1-0.
The Cougars picked up right where they left off in the first half as forward Mike McLaughlin, who picked up an assist on the Tapia goal, would have an opportunity to score his own goal in the 48th minute off of a header.
However, Calumet’s goalie made the save to keep the game close at 1-0. The save would be a spark for the opposition, as they dominated the scoring opportunities from the 50th minute to the 71st minute.
The CCSJ shots were flying, hitting the crossbar, going just wide, and going on net. Fortunately for the Cougars, none of those shots went in and the game remained at 1-0.
This seemed to be Calumet’s last charge as they ran out of gas, which allowed the Cougars to go on their own run, where they dominated the offensive scoring opportunities.
Unlike their opponents, the Cougars capitalized on the string of opportunities in the 87th minute off of a goal by midfielder Ricardo Aldape to make the game 2-0. A minute later, Aldape scored again on an empty netter to end the game and gave the Cougars a 3-0 lead.
The team was once again led by Aldape and Tapia, who combined to score all three goals the Cougars scored. They were also led by Valle who recorded a six save clean sheet.
With the two wins, the Cougars record now sits at 9-7 with a conference record of 6-4. They will look to continue their winning streak when they head to Olivet Nazarene University on Wednesday, October 28.
John Romando
Senior Sports Editor
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