Men's Soccer Earns a Draw at West Texas A&M in Opener

CANYON, Texas – The new rule in collegiate soccer eliminating the overtime periods came into effect in the first game of the season for the St. Mary's Men's Soccer team as they fought to a 1-1 tie with rival West Texas A&M on Thursday evening.
 
The 17th-ranked Buffs scored first, 17:19 into the game and it took until the 52nd minute for the Rattlers to pull even as senior Cian Foley (Wexford, Ireland) fed sophomore Bradley Greene (Essex, England) for the goal. Greene's shot from 25-yards out snuck past a diving goalie, knotting the score at 1-1.
 
"I'm a little disappointed," said Head Coach Johnny Clifford. "We really felt that we could have won - even at halftime when we were down. But we had to deal with a lot of adversity tonight and we started a really young team, so it's a result we can feel positive about going forward."
 
Junior Andre Schlaefli (Katy, Texas) spent all 90 minutes in goal, making seven straight saves after the initial goal, including five in the second half.
 
St. Mary's had the game's first look at scoring off a corner kick 14 minutes in. Senior Deni Cresto (Curitiba, Parana, Brazil) found senior Ariel Cardozo (Ciudad de Este, Paraguay), who headed a ball towards the net, but it was punched out by the WT goalie, Alfonso Aragon.
 
The Rattlers head to Colorado for a pair of contests against RMAC foes, playing at Colorado State-Pueblo on Sept. 7 and at UC Colorado Springs on Sept. 9.
 
INDIVIDUAL PLAYER & TEAM NOTES

• The goal for Bradley Greene is the second of his career. The sophomore scored one against Colorado School of Mines on Sept. 5, 2021.
• It was also the fifth assist of Cian Foley's career. He tallied four a season ago en route to 12 points (tied for fourth on the club).
• Six Rattlers made the first starts of their career against WT in Ariel Cardozo, Josua Hall, Leonardo Velazco, Cooper Stephens, Luke Mulkey and Adam Aboohamidi.
• Three true freshmen saw action in the contest in Mulkey, Aboohamidi and Alexander Carey.