SAN ANTONIO – It was déjà vu on Sunday afternoon as the St. Mary's University Men's Soccer team knocked off a ranked Colorado School of Mines squad for the second consecutive year. Last season the Rattlers took down the No. 8 Orediggers in Golden, Colorado by a score of 4-2 and was able to do the same today in front of the home crowd at Sigma Beta Chi field with a 3-1 decision.
The Rattlers improve to 2-0-0 on the year while the Orediggers fall to 1-1-0 after defeating St. Edward's on Friday night.
All three goals came from different St. Mary's players as
Jesus Valenzuela (2'),
Ollie Wright (25'), and
Deni Cresto (84') each found the back of the net.
For the second time in as many matches this season, the Rattlers struck first and within the first 15 minutes of the contest.
Liam Morrison played a ball on goal and Valenzuela redirected it just inside the near post to put the Rattlers up 1-0.
Just 23 minutes later, Wright netted his second goal of the season to extend the Rattlers lead to two goals as he took an Oredigger mishap and fired one past the Mines keeper.
Right before the break the Orediggers managed to cut the Rattlers' lead in half as Lucas King got his head on one off a free kick from midfield.
St. Mary's tacked on a third goal in the 84
th minute as
Deni Cresto took a Morrison throw in at the top of the box and weaved around a defender before slipping it by the keeper with his right foot to put the match out of reach.
St. Mary's will travel to Colorado Springs, Colorado this weekend to take on Fort Lewis College on Friday and Colorado at Colorado Springs on Sunday.
Visit
www.rattlerathletics.comfor live video and stats links for this weekend's matches.
