RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Freshman defender Juan Pablo Gonzalez scored his first career goal in the 82n.d minute of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men’s soccer team’s match against the Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles to earn a 1-1 tie on Saturday at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
UTRGV (1-0-1) outshot ORU (0-1-1) 13-1 and 6-1 with shots on goal. The Golden Eagles’ redshirt senior goalkeeper Jeremy Coste was solid in the net, recording five saves.
The Golden Eagles took a 1-0 lead into halftime. Both teams played methodically with minimal attacks for most of the opening half, combining to take just five shots – four by UTRGV, three on goal, and one by ORU which found the back of the net. Carlos Santamaría put the only ORU shot of the entire match in the net after a pass from Reed Berry in the 43rd minutes.
The physical first half got a bit chippy and two yellow cards were issued on UTRGV players. The Vaqueros put together some good attacks resulting in shots by the freshman defender Rasmus Steuch, graduate student midfielder Yusuf Cueceoglujunior midfielder Fernando Barrientos and junior forward Martin Tellez.
Cueceoglu, senior defender Jan Engels and junior forward Jason Robles were key facilitators for the Vaqueros’ offense. Junior defender Tristan Singh, sophomore defender Anthony Patti and junior forward Juan Rivera had a hand in keeping the Golden Eagles from getting a chance to shoot.
ORU played to maintain the lead in the second half and ran into trouble with three yellow cards being issued on the Golden Eagles. The Vaqueros got a string of corner kicks late in the match and got 12 corners to ORU’s 2.
UTRGV picked up the offensive pressure in the final 20 minutes of the contest and spent a lot of time in its offensive third. Cueceoglu took three shots throughout the match and picked up the secondary assist on the tying goal.
With eight minutes remaining, Cueceoglu sent a corner kick to Steuch, who took a good shot that was stopped by Coste. But the ORU keeper did not control it, and Gonzalez scooped up the rebound and buried the goal.
The Vaqueros return to the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex for a 4 pm contest against Texas A&M International on Thursday.
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