Offense Comes Alive; Men’s Soccer Cruises Past UCCS

FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION DEPARTMENT

HAYS, Kan. – The Fort Hays State University men’s soccer team saw their offense come to life on Monday (Sept. 12) with a 7-3 rout of University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. The 20th-ranked Tigers improved to 2-1-1 on the season while the Mountain Lions moved to 1-2-1 overall.

With a favorable wind in the first half, FHSU managed to push four goals across while allowing zero. A corner kick in the 18th minute gave the Tigers the lead as Luis Torres was able to corral the ball from Maurizio Costa and bury it in the back of the net.

In the 24th minute, the Tigers doubled their lead when Mauricio Castorino netted his first goal of 2016. Derick Gonzalez rifled a shot that caught the post, just out of reach of the sprawling Mountain Lion keeper. The rebound landed right at Castorino’s feet, who did not miss the wide open net. 58 seconds later, Torres and Costa connected again on another corner. This time, Torres caught the ball in the air and was able to volley it pass the keeper for his second goal of the match. Later in the half, the Tigers made it a four-goal advantage when Tomiwa Olaniran recorded his first goal of the season at the 43:42 mark. Olaniran made a run to the center of the box and athletically volleyed a high long ball from Arsenio Chamorro over the keeper’s head.

In the second half, UCCS used the wind to their favor and struck less than 10 minutes into the period. The Tigers responded in the 65th minute after Costa, Castorino and Luis Mendes executed phenomenal passing with the give and go technique to record Mendes’ first goal of the season.

Dylan Kintner joined the scoring parade in the 82nd minute, recording his first goal of the season. Damion Cooper sent a nice through ball into the box that Kinter possessed before beating a Mountain Lion defender and rifling a shot that beat the keeper diving to the right.

With the game looking like it was out of reach, UCCS once again found the back of the net, but just like earlier the Tigers responded just minutes later. Tyler VanCamp recorded his first assist of the season after sending a long through ball between a defender’s legs to a sprinting Derick Gonzalez. Gonzalez then used some nifty footwork to go around the keeper, making the game 7-2 in the 88th minute.

Hats off to UCCS, however, as they played until the very end, adding another goal with 22 seconds left remaining to make the score 7-3.

Michael Yantz picked up the win for the Tigers, saving three of the six shots on goal and bringing his record to 1-1-1 on the season.

The seven goals and eight assists for the Tigers are both tied for the second most in program history. In addition, Costa’s three assists are the second-most in a single match in program history and the most since 2014.

Moving forward, the Tigers will prepare for a trip out west as they head to Washington for a pair of matches starting on Thursday (Sept. 15), with the Tigers dueling with Western Washington and Seattle Pacific.

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