, St. Thomas 1

ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Lindenwood took down St. Thomas on Sunday afternoon behind a strong offensive performance that resulted in a 5-1 victory for the Lions. Ethan Blake, Sebastia Cerda Tous, and Matteo Landais would all have three point performances as each of them had a goal and an assist to help guide Lindenwood to the win. 

In the second minute of the game, St. Thomas would strike first to immediately put the pressure on the Lions. Yanis Lakhlifi would get past the Lion defense and would put a good pass on the foot of Mathis Guffroy, who would shoot it past a diving Quinn Closson to take the 1-0 lead.

However, Lindenwood would respond on both sides of the ball. The Lions would allow only two shots the remainder of the first half and would score four goals to take control of the game. In the 12th minute, Ethan Blake would gather the ball off of a deflection and would send a perfect through ball past the Tommie defense to an open Sebastia Cerda Tous who would beat the St. Thomas goalkeeper to tie the game at one. Five minutes later, Cerda Tous would repay the favor to Blake, as he would receive a long pass from Leandro Haesler, and would find Blake to give the Lions the 2-1 lead.

Later in the half, Jordan Matthews would control a ball in the left corner and get around the St. Thomas defender. Matthews would send a high cross pass to Matteo Landais, who would score the Lions third goal of the game on a header to the right corner of the goal. Following the third goal of the game, Lindenwood would add on to their lead 10 minutes later as Luke Neely would send a pass from across the field to Matteo Landais. Landais would get around his defender and would hit an open Jarred Hendricks across the box. Hendricks would send a shot passed the Tommie goalkeeper to the lower left corner to give the Lions a 4-1 lead at the break. Lindenwood finished the first half with 11 shots and eight of those shots being on goal. 

The Lions would score their final goal of the game early on in the second half as Bruno Fornes would send a shot from the right side of the box. The Tommies goalkeeper would get a hand on it for the save, but the rebound would go right to Gavin Csiszar who would tap it in for the fifth goal of the game for Lindenwood. The Lions finished the contest with a total of 19 shots and 11 of them being on target. The Lindenwood defense held the Tommies to just nine shots during the game, with five being on goal. Quinn Closson would record three saves in 71 minutes played to get the win, while Mason Shale would add a save in 19 minutes played.

#16/18 SAINT LOUIS 2, SIUE 1

ST. LOUIS – A pair of second half goals lifted 16th-ranked Saint Louis to a 2-1 win over SIUE men’s soccer Sunday night at Hermann Stadium. The win ended a two-game streak for the Cougars in the series and sent the Bronze Boot back to the Billikens.

SIUE slipped to 1-3 while Saint Louis improved to 3-1-1.

The first half ended scoreless, despite quality chances for both sides.

Evan Howard had a clear shot in the 24th minute and he took the chance from straight on. His low drive was saved by Billiken goalkeeper Jeremi Abonnel

SLU nearly took the lead in the in the 39th minute when Abdoul Karim Pare unleashed a shot from the left side of the box forcing SIUE keeper Noah Scheidweiler to make a sprawling save to his right.

The Billikens broke through in the 58th minute when Andrew Heckenlaible streaked down the left side, cutting into the box before sliding a pass in front of goal. Xavi O’Neil scored at the back post under Scheidweiler.

The Cougars nearly equalized just six minutes later when Ben Perkins banged a shot off the underside of the crossbar from seven yards out, only to have the ball come down outside of the goal.

Saint Louis doubled the advantage in the 66th minute when Theo Franca broke down the right side. Scheidweiler came out to the top of the box, making the initial stop, before tumbling to the ground. The ball got by him and Franca was able to slide into the empty net from the right edge of the box.

SIUE’s lone goal came from Evan Howard in the 87th minute. Elliott Forestier slid a pass wide to the left side to Hugo Cornish. Cornish sent a cross in front of the goal where Howard headed home to trim the lead back to 2-1.

Saint Louis outshot SIUE 17-9 overall and held an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal. Howard and Ethan Hackenberg each had three shots in the game. Howard had two on goal.

HCU 3, ORAL ROBERTS 1

HOUSTON –  Houston Christian University hit on all cylinders on Sunday night, flying past Oral Roberts University 3-1 at Sorrels Field.

It was the fourth win in five for the Huskies, who jumped out in front seven minutes in and never looked back.

 

Picking up where they left off in California, the Huskies came out attacking from the kick-off. One the exact stroke of seven minutes in, Ryan Okerayi was clipped in the box by ORU keeper Jakub Grzesiak to earn a penalty.

 

Okerayi for the second time in as many matches stepped to the spot and calmly connected, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead they would not relinquish.

HCU would keep up the pressure, getting several good looks, including a chance from Joby Reid on a breakaway in the 25th minute that was saved before taking the one-nil lead to the break.

 

In the second half, the two teams bounced back and forth, neither squad willing to give much ground. In the 61st minute, the Huskies earned a corner. Ben Thirkill swirled it in to Nico Kross, whose header glanced to Hans Leza for a redirect and a 2-0 lead for the Huskies.

That’s how it would stay until the 86th minute. One frantic push after another finally resulted in a corner for ORU and an Emmanuel Denis entry found Emilio Cazares for the score, cutting the lead in half with still four minutes to play.

 

Nailbiting time didn’t last long. ORU would earn another corner in the 89th minute, but the ball was punched out of the box and found its way to Aidan Lopez, who then raced all the way down the left sideline. It was there he would hit Ian Belong streaking down the middle of the field. Belong would softly connect with a left footed shot past a drawn out Grzesiak for his first career goal that would put the game on ice for HCU.

HCU posted its fifth straight match with double-figure shots, with the two teams tying on attempts. The staunch defensive effort held the Eagles to just two shots on target, with Alex Aitken, the school’s leader in career saves, needing to make just one save on this night to secure the victory. It was his 20th career win, becoming just the third goalkeeper in school history to hit that mark.

 

Ryan Okerayi had his team-best fourth goal of the season while taking a team-high three shots. Joby Reid and Jireh Oyebamiji each had a pair of shots, while Leza notched his first goal since October 8, 2023 against Eastern Illinois. Belong had his first career goal on the first assist of the season by Lopez, and Kross added his second helper of the campaign.

 

Oral Roberts (1-4-1) got three shots, two on goal, by Emilio Cazares, who scored his second goal of the season. Grzesiak saw 12 shots and made four saves.

 

HCU is now 4-1 on the season, with the victory knotting the all-time series with ORU at 6-6-4. It is the best five-match start to a season since the 2007 team opened up 5-0. 

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