LAREDO, Texas (Sept. 22, 2012) – It's been several years since Oklahoma Christian's men's soccer team has been on a roll like it is now and the Eagles want to ride the wave as long as they can.
OC rallied from an early deficit for a 2-1 win on Saturday afternoon over Texas A&M International at Dustdevil Field, with Cole Rinke's goal in the 87th minute proving to be the decisive score.
OC (4-2) has won four straight games for the first time since Oct. 3-17, 2009, when the Eagles beat Wayland Baptist (Texas), Tabor (Kan.), Oklahoma Baptist and Oklahoma City University in succession. The Eagles have won three straight road games for the first time since 2007, when they won at Newman (Kan.), John Brown (Ark.) and St. Gregory's as part of a five-game winning streak.
The Eagles are 3-0 against Heartland Conference foes, having won at Newman and St. Mary's (Texas) before beating TAMIU, although those games do not count in the conference standings, as OC is in the first year of the NCAA Division II membership process.
"The guys are really playing for one another," OC coach David Scott said. "We are scoring goals this season but they are coming from several different places. A lot of it comes down to the work the guys are putting in and playing with an unselfish attitude. They are having fun playing together and it is showing in the performances they are putting in each game."
The game Saturday included six yellow cards and four red cards – three of those issued against Texas A&M International. By the end of the game, OC was playing with a 10-to-9-man advantage and TAMIU coach Claudio Arias also had been ejected.
TAMIU (2-3-2) went ahead in the 29th minute, as Diego Manzano-Cano passed to Elkin Marin-Tobar in the middle of the field and Marin-Tobar beat OC goalkeeper Connor Davenport. Davenport started in place of Tim Spencer, who was ejected in the final seconds of OC's win Thursday at St. Mary's and had to sit out Saturday.
In the 42nd minute, TAMIU's Adan Villavicencio was ejected and Arias followed him for protesting the call, giving OC a man advantage.
Domenico DeGrazia nearly equalized for OC in the 58th minute, hitting the post with a shot. About six minutes later, he hit the crossbar with a shot and Tommy Guernsey headed in the rebound, pulling OC even at 1-1.
Marin-Tobar received his second yellow card – and thus a red card – for throwing an elbow in the 75th minutes. OC played with a two-man advantage for less than three minutes before Sam Guernsey received a second yellow card and a red card for dissent.
TAMIU goalkeeper Jesus Cisneros made a quality save on a shot by DeGrazia in the 83rd minute to preserve the tie, but in the 87th minute, Ricardo Chinchilla passed to Tommy Guernsey, whose shot from the right corner of the goal box beat Cisneros.
The Dustdevils didn't manage a shot after that. OC outshot TAMIU 19-17.
"It was another gutsy performance from our guys," Scott said. "We were under pressure early but we stayed organized and kept things tight at the back and really limited them from many quality chances. I think we were a little in awe early in the game and gave a little too much respect to them. Once we finally settled down and quit rushing and panicking with the ball, we opened them up a little and created some opportunites and gave them a few problems.
"We were fortunate to go up a man and we did a nice job taking advantage of the situation. We controlled the game after that and I'm proud of the way we closed things out at the end."
Davenport, in his second career start, improved his career record to 2-0 with a four-save performance. Cisneros made seven saves for the Dustdevils.
OC will return home for two games against Heartland Conference foes next week, hosting Dallas Baptist (Texas) on Thursday night and St. Edward's (Texas) on Saturday afternoon.
