RIO GRANDE VALLEY – After 481 hours and 54 minutes of elapsed time between kickoff and the final whistle, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's soccer team earned its fourth consecutive home draw with a 2-2 tie against the HCU Huskies Wednesday at UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
Junior
Elias Taj scored in the 10
th minute on Wednesday, Oct. 1 to take an initial 1-0 lead and sophomore
Sammy Jadid tacked on his third of the season to take the 2-1 lead in the 51
st minute Wednesday. Both goals for the Vaqueros (3-5-4, 1-3-3 OVC) were unassisted.
The Huskies (4-6-5, 2-2-3) received game-tying goals from
Ricardo Garcia and
Calrenns Sainrimat. Jess Degenaers picked up the lone assist in the match.
The match kicked off at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 1 where UTRGV took a 1-0 lead off the right foot of Taj. Taj officially leads the Vaqueros in goals with five scored this season and in points with 12.
In that 10
th minute, freshman
Victor van der Aa sent a long ball to Taj from the right side of the box. Taj received the pass amid two blue jerseys, tapped the ball over the head of the Huskies center back to create a one-on-one opportunity with HCU goalkeeper
Harvey Heeps. Taj shot it past the charging Heeps and into the bottom right corner of the net to put the Vaqueros ahead 1-0.
The match was suspended in the 22nd minute and following the 2026 and 2027 NCAA Men's and Women's Soccer Rule 7.7.2, the match was resumed from the point of interruption, and all statistics carried over to the resumed game, including cards.
The Vaqueros defense continued to squeeze the Huskies throughout the first half, not allowing a shot on goal until the 44
th minute. The shot, a strike from Garcia, tied the match at 1-1.
Coming out of the half, both teams picked up the intensity as the Huskies continued to utilize the long ball to create opportunities. One deep ball found the foot of
Ryan Okerayi inside the box as he created a penalty kick opportunity.
Okerayi stepped up to take the penalty and fired a shot toward the middle of the net, where sophomore goalkeeper
Conrad Knight made his first save of the match.
Off the failed penalty, UTRGV pushed toward the offensive half where Jadid picked up a loose ball just inside the top left corner of the box. Jadid made a move to create space and fired a shot to the near corner just past the diving HCU goalkeeper
Harvey Heeps in the 51
st minute.
HCU's Sainrimat knocked in the final goal of the match in the 73
rd minute to knot the match at 2-2.
UTRGV outshot HCU 16-9 but the Huskies led the Vaqueros 6-5 in shots on goal. Both squads generated four corners in the match.
Knight recorded four saves in the match while Heeps tallied three for the Huskies.
The Vaqueros will now turn their attention to their senior day match against Western Illinois on Saturday, which is scheduled to kick off at 6:30 p.m. at UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
UTRGV Athletics has a clear bag policy for spectators attending all athletic events hosted by UTRGV. You can get all the details
here.
Fans can watch live domestically on
ESPN+ or internationally on
Southland International. Fans can also follow along through
live stats.
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