SALEM, Ore. – After fighting back to take the lead late in the second half, the Corban University Men's Soccer team was unable to hand the RV Missouri Baptist University Spartans their first loss of the season, as the Spartans scored three goals in a four-minute span for a 4-2 final score to fend off the Warriors at the Outdoor Athletic Complex (OAC) on the foot of Corban's campus.
"Not the result we anticipated collectively after leading two-one," shared Warriors' head coach Josh Rios Noonkester. "We were very organized defensively for sixty-five minutes. There are many positives to take away from this match against a quality opponent who has started their season well. We felt we controlled the play and demonstrated composure for long stretches. We will continue to work towards playing a complete match. I'm confident our group will respond with the right mentality after this performance. Thank you to everyone that came out to support our program tonight!"
In their first home match since a thrilling 2-1 comeback victory against Stanton University to kick off the 2024 regular season, the Warriors (1-2-0) entered tonight's matchup against a quality Spartan (3-0-0) program who completed back-to-back Top 25 upsets last week to start their own season, both on the road as well. Coach Noonkester and his staff knew if they wanted to knock off Missouri Baptist on their home turf, they needed a complete game effort to do so.
It wasn't until the 35th minute until the first goal of the evening was scored, as forward Marko Dordevic handled a lob inside from midfielder Jack Ridley and slipped a shot through a pair of defenders and into the back of the net. Corban would have a handful of opportunities on their own offensive end of the field through the final ten minutes of the opening half but would settle for a 1-0 deficit at halftime.
Nearly conceding a second goal to the Spartans in the 59th minute motivated the Navy and Gold to make a push in their own attacking third, as graduate student defender Jairo Aguirre flew up the right half of the field and found junior forward Rodrigo Bonilla open in the goal box, which he headed into the net to tie this contest at a goal apiece.
Just under six minutes later, another Corban cross into the penalty box was originally swatted away from the MoBap goalkeeper yet pinballed around a handful of times before senior midfielder Diego Gonzalez-Ruiz swooped in and scored his first career goal for the Warriors that flipped a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 advantage in a matter of minutes.
However, determined not to drop their first contest of the season, the Spartans were able to take advantage of a Corban foul in their own penalty box, providing Missouri Baptist with the PK opportunity they needed to force a 2-all tie after Dordevic secured his brace.
Not even two minutes later, midfielder Sergej Misic found an open gap in the Warriors' defense to strike what would hold to be the game-winner from twenty yards out, with an assist being credited to midfielder Jovan Mihajlovic. Finally, in the 76th minute, Mihajlovic scored his own goal on a direct kick opportunity just outside the Corban goal box to cement the road victory for Missouri Baptist.
Bonilla and redshirt junior midfielder Irwin Leon led the Warriors in shots with three apiece, with all three of Bonilla's resulting in either goals or saves by Spartans' goalkeeper Sean Stone, who finished with six saves on two goals allowed. Corban redshirt junior goalkeeper Isaac Pureco allowed four goals in his second loss of the year while fending off seven saves. Dordevic was the game-high leader in shots with eight in total this evening, scoring on two of those attempts.
Corban men's soccer will have a week to right the ship before their next contest, as they're scheduled to host NCAA DIII Linfield University on Thursday, September 4th at 4pm back at the OAC.
Follow Corban Athletics:
Facebook l Twitter l Instagram l YouTube l Email
