TULSA, Okla. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros men's soccer team fell 2-0 to the Oral Roberts (ORU) Golden Eagles at Case Soccer Complex Tuesday.
The Golden Eagles (2-3-2) earned the win with a deep strike from
Lazarus Ocira in the 59
th minute.
Emre Aydin added an insurance goal in the 76
th minute to secure the win.
Three Vaqueros (2-1-1) played the full match, including goalkeeper
Conrad Knight who recorded two saves on the evening, senior
Malang Mandiang, and freshman
Victor van der Aa. Fifth year captain
Eduardo De Oliveira led the Vaqueros with four shots. In addition, De Oliveira and freshman
Mauricio Arreguin led UTRGV in shots on goal with one apiece.
The Vaqueros started off the match slow, giving up two shots within the first six minutes of the match, but settled into their defensive shape soon afterwards, holding ORU without a shot for the next 30 minutes.
UTRGV took the next four shots of the match, including two opportunities created by junior
Elias Taj, who worked his way through the ORU defense and reached the top of the box before sending both attempts high.
The best look of the match came from Arreguin who received a pass on the left wing, entered the box, and fired a shot toward the upper corner that was pushed over the crossbar by Golden Eagles goalkeeper
Cameron Parma in the 31
st minute.
ORU created a couple solid attacks but couldn't find space for a shot until the 41
st minute when Aydin received the pass off a good combination play in the left side of the box. Aydin fired a shot but was stopped by a diving Knight for his first save of the match.
The Golden Eagles had one more shot attempt that sailed wide left of the goal with five seconds to go in the half. Knight and Parma had one save apiece in the first half. Both teams had four shots and one shot on goal in the half.
After Ocira's goal, ORU put another shot on goal in the 60
th minute, but the diving Knight punched the ball wide right of the net.
The Golden Eagles increased the pressure in the second half, using sustained possession to create opportunities and outshooting the Vaqueros 6-4, including a 3-1 advantage in shots on goal.
In the match, ORU outshot UTRGV 11-8 with a 4-2 advantage on goal. Despite the result, UTRGV generated 10 corner kicks while holding Oral Roberts to one.
Three yellow cards were assessed in the match, one apiece to ORU's
Roman Hemphill and
Samuel Jones while UTRGV sophomore
Sammy Jadid received a yellow card as well.
The Vaqueros will turn their attention to Friday when they travel to Air Force (AF). The match is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. (CT). Fans can watch live on
Mountain West+ or follow along using
live stats.
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