LAREDO, Texas – A dominant first half on defense in addition to scoring three times lifted the St. Mary's University Men's Soccer team to a 3-1 win at Texas A&M International on Saturday evening.
The Rattlers remain undefeated in Lone Star Conference play with the victory, moving to 5-0 in league action and 9-3 overall, while the Dustdevils drop to 5-5-2 overall and 2-3-1 in conference play. It is the fifth time this season that the Rattlers have scored three or more times in a match.
"This was another good win for us," said Head Coach
Johnny Clifford. "Laredo is a very difficult place to play, but we dug in and managed to create some good chances. I still think we need to be more clinical, and when TAMIU bounced back, we made the game difficult on ourselves, but we take the points and move onto the next."
Sophomore
Ryan Guillaume (Trelex, Vaud, Switzerland) collected three points in the match, scoring the team's first goal in the ninth minute on a pass from graduate student
Filipe Bastos (Santa Maria de Faria, Portugal), and then finding sophomore
Sebastian Poblete (Kendall West, Fla.) for an assist on the second goal in the 51st minute.
TAMIU made the score 2-1 on a goal in the 71st minute as John Marualanda found Kamal Zulifiyev for his second goal of the season, but former Dustdevil and current Rattler
Kai Louviere (Hondo, Texas) scored with 25 seconds remaining for the insurance goal and the 3-1 final.
The Rattlers did not allow TAMIU a single shot in the first half, and freshman goalkeeper
Nichita Misac (Lisbon, Portugal) made two saves in the second half to keep the Rattlers undefeated in league play. The offense took 16 shots, placing 10 on goal as Nicklas Berg-Eriksen made seven saves for the Dustdevils.
The Rattlers bring the longest active winning streak in the Lone Star Conference home, hosting league newcomer UT Dallas on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The Comets are 1-1-3 in league play after dropping a close 2-1 decision to defending national champion Midwestern State on Saturday evening.
