PLAINVIEW, Texas – The No. 23 Mid-America Christian men's soccer team is off to its best start in program history, as the Evangels rallied from a goal down to pull out a 2-1 victory at Wayland Baptist thanks to Fabian Forisch's game-winning goal in the 71st minute on Tuesday.
Rodrigo Albuquerque netted a 37th minute equalizer for his fifth goal of the season while Forisch scored his first goal of 2019, scoring the only goal in the second half and handing Wayland Baptist (5-1-2, 1-1 Sooner Athletic Conference) its first loss of year.
With the victory, the Evangels have won five straight and set a new milestone by recording their eight wins in nine matches. The previous best start to a season for MACU came last season when the Evangels started off the year 7-1, but fell to the University of Science & Arts in their ninth match of the season to fall to 7-2.
The Pioneers would not make things easy for Mid-America Christian (8-1, 2-0 SAC) as they recorded the first score of the match. In the eighth minute, WBU's Hector Romero found Santiago Pereyra on a cross from the right side to the left post, firing a shot in past SAC Defensive Player of the Week Austen Parker to make it 1-nil just 7:18 into the contest.
MACU's opportunities were limited in the opening half, but the Evangels were finally able to find a crack in the Pioneers defense with 7:46 remaining.
On the game-tying play, Caleb Roldan was able to make a fantastic move to beat the defender on the left side of the Pioneers goal box and launched a perfectly placed cross to the right side of the goal. The pass found the foot of Albuquerque and his shot sailed into the net, locking the match up at 1-1 heading into the halftime break.
Both defenses continued to play well in the second half, but Forisch was able to single handedly put the Evangels in-front. The freshman defender from Germany was able to collect a loose ball in-front of the goal box and fire a well-placed ball out of the reach of the Pioneers goalkeeper just inside the left post.
MACU faced just one last scare at the 81:33 mark when WBU's leading scorer James Westfield got an open look and fired a shot toward the right side of the goal, but the ball deflected off a MACU defender and out the right side of the baseline, allowing the Evangels to maintain the lead.
That was the lone shot the MACU defense allowed in the final 20 minutes of the match to hold on for the one-goal victory.
Despite holding just an 11-10 edge in shots over the Pioneers, MACU allowed just three on-target shots while placing six shots on-goal.
Albuquerque led the Evangels offensive attack with three shots and put two on-goal while Roldan recorded his third assist of the season. Starting in all nine matches, Parker improved his record to 8-1 in-goal after recording a pair of saves in the victory.
Mid-America Christian will look to keep the streak going on Saturday as the Evangels will travel to McPherson, Kan. for a 5:30 p.m. match at Central Christian.
