SXU Athletics
It took two overtime periods before the Cougars rose from the dead to get the win at Roosevelt University with a pair of late goals on Saturday.
The Saint Xavier men’s soccer team finished the month of October 5-1, and the Cougars are looking to make it a special November, too.
The win moved Saint Xavier into third place in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference with a 7-2-1 record. With the loss, Roosevelt dropped to fifth place with its 7-3 mark in the CCAC.
Saint Xavier was down early in the second half after Roosevelt started the scoring.
The Lakers got the first goal of the game with some fancy passing in close against Cougar goalkeeper AJ Pfatschbacher in the 58th minute.
After fancy ball movement for the Lakers, Omar Guzman wound up with the ball. His strike beat Pfatschbacher to the post, giving Roosevelt the 1-nil lead.
The Cougars would equalize, but it took some time for Saint Xavier to finally get on the board.
In the 77th minute, junior midfielder Miguel Cazarez gained possession of the ball. He quickly got a long pass away to junior forward Marco Gutierrez, who headed the ball over opposing goalkeeper Jake Cigelnik.
From that point until the end of regulation, the match was deadlocked.
It was a chippy game throughout, with 11 cards being handed out between the two teams, including a red card to a member of each squad.
A yellow card against Roosevelt’s Hayden Hagemann in the box resulted in a 109th-minute penalty kick opportunity for junior midfielder Erik Ramirez. With the game on the line, Ramirez buried to take home the win.
The Cougars have one more match remaining in the regular season. They host the Robert Morris University Eagles tonight at 7 p.m.
The first round of the CCAC tournament follows, beginning Saturday.
Tim Carroll
Senior Sports Editor