SALEM, Ore. – Two goals in the opening seven minutes of play today at the Outdoor Athletic Complex (OAC) allowed the Corban University Men's Soccer team to advance to 2-0 in Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) play this season with a 3-1 victory over the Oregon Tech Hustlin' Owls. Three different Warriors (3-4-0, 2-0-0) scored this afternoon to earn their second-straight win and second-consecutive against a respectable OIT (4-4-0, 1-2-0) squad who they have never lost to on their home pitch.
"Very pleased with the energy and effort from our group today," detailed Corban head coach Josh Rios Noonkester. "We came in prepared to battle for ninety to earn a result, and the quality of the chances our guys were creating in both halves was great to see. We'll look to clean up some details in our defensive third, but it's still early for our group. We're excited for the win, but all focus is now turned to our match against SOU tomorrow. Thank you to all of our supporters who made it out. We hope to see you tomorrow!"
Not even five minutes into the match, junior midfielder Santiago Castano gained possession on a 1-vs-1 ball opportunity, coming away with the ball roughly twenty yards out from the goal and ripped a shot into the back of the net. A similar play happened less than two minutes later by freshman forward Jose Guzman, who took advantage by pressuring the Oregon Tech defense who had just surrendered an early goal and found himself at the right place at the right time just yards away from the OIT goalkeeper and doubled the Warriors' lead at 2-0l. This was both Castano and Guzman's first goals of the season and first collegiate score for the true freshman.
Just a few seconds into the 15th minute, the Hustlin' Owls hopped on the scoreboard after midfielder Andrew Pasang found midfielder Wolfgang Alvarado alone in the Warriors' penalty box, netting the easy score to cut their deficit in half with nearly seventy-five minutes of soccer to still be played.
The scoring would take a pause for the remainder of the first half, yet the intensity never slumped as both squads had plenty of opportunities foiled at the net and the each committed their fair share of fouls. Corban had a 10-8 disadvantage in fouls committed in the first half, yet a 16-9 margin against the Owls in the second half would give the visiting team 24 compared to 19 for Corban on the match for an astonishing 43 total fouls called in the match, including five yellow cards distributed.
In the 66th minute, redshirt junior midfielder Irwin Leon would provide the Navy and Gold with the insurance goal they needed to nearly seal their fate against Oregon Tech, as Guzman found Leon in stride as he sprinted past the Owls' defense line to power a shot right by the head of OIT goalkeeper Ryan Solis to give Corban a 3-1 lead.
Plenty of fouls and shot attempts later of the final twenty-five minutes of action, and the Warriors emerged victorious despite being outshot 12-11 by the Hustlin' Owls. Despite their evenly matched offensive outputs, Warriors' redshirt junior goalkeeper needed only three save attempts to tally his third win of the season against his record in the complete game effort. His OIT counterpart Solis turned away four shots that he faced yet allowed a trio of goals.
Leon led the Corban offense with three shots in total this afternoon, while Guzman was 2-for-2 on shots either resulting in a goal or save while dishing out his fourth assist of the year. Freshman forward Zachary Milczarek also registered two shots with both ending in save attempts, one of which came just inches from finding paydirt. Forward Cash Cota led Oregon Tech with five shots, two of which came on goal.
A tall task awaits the Corban men's soccer team tomorrow afternoon at 2:30pm, as they look to topple the No. 24-ranked Southern Oregon University Raiders (6-2-0, 3-0-0) at the OAC and avenge their quarterfinal loss to them last season in the 2023 CCC Tournament.
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