In the Austin heat, the St. Edward’s men’s soccer team played with passion against the Eastern New Mexico University Greyhounds but were unable to secure the win. Although St. Ed’s had 14 goal opportunities, they were unable to score a third goal at the end of the game, and the final whistle blew with a tied score of 2-2. Both goals were scored by sophomore Vicente Alvarez.
St. Ed’s was given many corner kicks, fouls and made many great efforts in scoring in the first half, but the half ended in a scoreless draw. The second half had the fans on the edge of their seat, with a total of seven shots on goal and a little more drama, with six yellow cards given out. There was even a small fight that happened due to a player on the opposing side allegedly spitting on one of the St. Ed’s players.
New Mexico managed to score early into the second half, but St. Ed’s made a comeback after they had a corner kick and scored after a couple of passes and an assist from senior Irvin Abarca to Alvarez. That goal was scored in the 76th minute and New Mexico scored almost immediately, just 14 seconds after. The Greyhounds went crazy, thinking they had already secured the victory, but St. Ed’s did not let that stop them from scoring one more time in the 84th minute.
“It’s a great achievement to score in a collegiate level, but we didn’t get the three points as we wanted, so it’s a very bittersweet feeling,” Alvarez said. “To be completely honest, I think we did everything well with our composure. We stayed very composed, we played very well, we played the way we practice everyday. I just think sometimes soccer just won’t give it to you, that’s just how the sport is.”
The Hilltoppers had a lot of good turnovers trying to score that last third goal even with the Greyhounds trying to stall the game. Although they did not manage to get that last goal, St. Ed’s did not show any sign of slowing down. Even when the announcer was counting down the last 10 seconds of the game, the players still pushed but missed that last chance.
“I think that it was coming for us.” head coach Brian Young said. “I think even when we were down a goal you could feel it, we had the momentum. I was proud of the guys fighting back, both physically and mentally. I think the key takeaways would be that the guys are resilient because it’s easy at a midday game with not tons of fans to just concede the loss, but the guys fought back.”
The Hilltoppers traveled to San Antonio to face off against the St. Mary’s University Rattlers for the Battle of the Saints on Oct. 12 and unfortunately fell short, with a 2-1 final score. They return to home field on Wednesday, Oct. 16, against Texas A&M University for the Pink Out game for Breast Cancer Awareness.
