Men's Soccer Keeps Building Momentum With 2-1 Win over Dustdevils

SAN ANTONIO – Two goals in the first half set up the St. Mary's University Men's Soccer team on Saturday evening in a non-conference match-up against Texas A&M International and they went on to win 2-1.
 
"Tonight was a good win," said StMU Head Coach Johnny Clifford. "Especially with having two games in 48 hours. We played really well in the first half, but I felt we dropped our level in the second and struggled to keep the ball. TAMIU is a good team with some great individual talent. They caused us problems in the second half but we hung on and I thought we deserved the three points."
 
Both seniors Cooper Stephens (Richardson, Texas) and Pau Mateu-Deya (Marratxi, Balearic Islands, Spain) scored their first goals of the season in helping the Rattlers move to 3-1-2 on the year.
 
Stephens took the pass from junior Calum Murdoch (Christchurch, New Zealand), drove to the middle of the field and blasted a shot into the top left corner of the goal from the edge of the penalty arc in the 30th minute. 
 
In the 42nd minute, senior Sofian Maghouz (London, England) took a corner kick for the Rattlers on the far side of the pitch, placing the ball at the perfect header height at the edge of the post for Mateu-Deya to flick into the top right corner of the net for the 2-0 lead.
 
In an extremely physical second half, where the Dustdevils (2-2-1) were whistled for 17 fouls and four cards, they managed to get one goal back, but the Rattlers defense held tough the final 33 minutes to give StMU its third win of the year.
 
The Rattlers wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule next week, traveling to UT Tyler on Wednesday before hosting #19 Midwestern State on Saturday at 5 p.m.