By Alan Wiederhold
HT Athletic Communications
AUSTIN – Huston-Tillotson University men's soccer coach
Aaron Yancy saw his third season leading the Rams start on the right foot as his team claimed a 3-1 win Friday at Concordia Texas.
Freshmen
Manuel Guevara and
Omar Ponce – both Del Valle High School alumni – found the back of the net in the second half of Friday's match as the Rams (1-0) won their third match in as many tries against NCAA Division III opposition during Yancy's tenure.
Played at Gardner-Boggs Field, the baseball field at Concordia Texas, Guevara broke a 1-1 tie in the 61st minute when he took a bad pass from the Tornado defense and fired a strike from outside the penalty area (more than 25 yards away) into the top-left corner of the goal.
Ponce gave the Rams an insurance tally two seconds before the final whistle he reacted perfectly to a pass from teammate
Jayden Melendez (San Antonio, Texas / Brandeis) and fired home a shot from inside the goal box, giving HT its final margin of victory.
Freshman goalkeeper
Luke Phillips (Liberty Hill, Texas / Liberty Hill) started in goal and picked up his first collegiate victory after making five saves. Fellow freshman
Mauricio Olivares (Houston, Texas / Pasadena Memorial HS) played the second half in goal and made one save.
Senior striker
Christian Kisukulu (Kinshasa, D.R. Congo / Michigan Lutheran HS) gave the Rams an early lead when he headed in a well-placed free kick from freshman
Alejandro Cruz (Lockhart, Texas / Lockhart).
Concordia's Ivan Essis accounted for the Tornados' lone goal of the match.
The host Tornados had plenty of time in terms of possession to net a tying goal in the second half but could muster few scoring chances as the Rams' back line stifled most opportunities in a match that got increasingly physical and chippy in the final half-hour. Though he only had to stop one shot on goal, Olivares also disrupted the Concordia attack by intercepting multiple crossing passes in the second half.
A sizable Huston-Tillotson cheering section was part of a sizable crowd that witnessed a rare Concordia soccer match on its own campus since Concordia Texas relocated to from its former location near the University of Texas campus in 2008. Even prior to the move, the Tornados played most – if not all – varsity soccer matches off-campus.
The playing area Friday went from left field to right field on the baseball surface's all-turf outfield. Yancy pointed out before the match that there was very little room for corner kicks on the far side of the field on the opposite side of the baseball infield.
HT returns to action Monday, Aug. 25, when they face Texas Wesleyan at the Round Rock Multipurpose Complex. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m.
– HT –
