COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The University of Colorado Colorado Springs men's soccer team used a balanced offensive attack and stellar defense to power to a 3-0 victory over the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks on Sunday afternoon at Mountain Lion Stadium.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: UCCS 3, FLC 0
Records: UCCS (10-1-3, 5-0-1 RMAC), FLC (2-9-2, 1-5-0 RMAC)
Facility: Mountain Lion Stadium | Colorado Springs, Colo.
All-Time Series: The Mountain Lions improve to 13-42-5 against Fort Lewis all-time and are 3-1 in their last four meetings with the Skyhawks.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
- Sunday afternoon's match saw the Mountain Lions open the scoring early in the first half as junior Jack Souder received a pass from Marvin Putu and fired it into the back of the net to give UCCS a 1-0 lead in the 4th minute.
- UCCS continued their first half attack in the 27th minute when senior Kolby Raineri touched a pass from the middle of the box out to the right, where sophomore Bogdan Vedernikov was waiting to unleash a strong right-footed shot past the Skyhawk goalkeeper to make it a 2-0 match in favor of the Mountain Lions.
- The Mountain Lions would add a third goal with less than five minutes remaining in the first half as Raineri worked his way through traffic and led a pass into the goalie box. After the ball bounced off an FLC defender, graduate student Liam McGuire found an opening in the far-right corner of the net to extend the UCCS lead to 3-0.
- The UCCS defense stole the show the rest of the way, keeping the Skyhawks to just four shots on goal in the match to secure a 3-0 conference victory and their eighth clean sheet of the season.
STATS FROM THE GAME:
- The Mountain Lions outshot the Skyhawks 26-10 while also holding advantages in shots on goal (11-4) and corner kicks (8-3).
- Raineri and McGuire matched each other for the team lead in shots with four, while McGuire notched his fourth goal of the season and Raineri tallied his seventh and eighth assists of the year.
- Ben Ashfield, Vedernikov, Souder, and Putu each recorded three shots in the match, with Vedernikov scoring the first goal of his career and Souder notching his third goal of the season. Putu also added his sixth assist of the season.
- Declan Domyan patrolled the net for the first 71 minutes of action, holding the Skyhawks without a goal while recording four saves. Frankie Turnbull entered the game in the 72nd minute and maintained the clean sheet with 18 minutes of scoreless action.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- With the win, UCCS men's soccer extends their program record unbeaten streak to eleven games dating back to Sept. 3. The single season record for wins in a season is 13, established in three separate seasons with most recent coming in 2015.
- The UCCS defense records their eighth clean sheet of the season, which ranks as the third most in a single season in program history. The program record for single season clean sheets is 11, established during the 2016 season.
- With two assists today, Raineri moves into sole possession of fourth-place all-time with 15 assists in his four-year career at UCCS.
- UCCS entered this afternoon's match with a plus-28 goal differential, which ranked first in the conference and sixth in the nation.
UP NEXT:
- UCCS will hit the road next week as they travel to Lakewood, Colo., on Thursday, Oct. 13 to battle Colorado Christian University for a 1 p.m. kickoff from Trailblazer Stadium.
SOCIAL:
Twitter - @GoMountainLions
Instagram - @gomountainlions
Facebook – Go Mountain Lions
As a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the University of Colorado Colorado Springs competes in 16 varsity sports in NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletics.
