OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian men's soccer team closed out its 2019 regular season home schedule in a fitting manner of this year's squad, recording its 10th shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over Texas Wesleyan on Senior Day at Evangel Field on Saturday.
Freshman forward Pero Mikulic scored MACU's game-winner in the 23rd minute, senior forward Allan Sorato notched a goal in his final regular season home match in an Evangels uniform and Carlos Castrejon tallied his first goal of the 2019 season in the second half to lead the Evangels attack.
Mid-America Christian (13-2-1, 6-1-1 Sooner Athletic Conference) was able to get the attack going early as Fabian Forisch tracked down a loose ball off a Castrejon shot that was saved, but his rebound was rifled off the crossbar to keep the match scoreless in the 11th minute.
The Evangels were able to break through 12 minutes later when Caleb Roldan's shot from the right side was saved by the diving Texas Wesleyan (4-13, 3-5 SAC) keeper, but the loose ball found its way to Mikulic crashing in the box and firing a point-blank shot into the back of the open net to make it a 1-nil MACU advantage.
With 14:03 remaining in the half, Mid-America Christian had another great opportunity to add to it, but Rodrigo Albuquerque's open shot from the right side pinged off the left post, keeping the Evangels lead at one.
With just 1:30 to go until the half, Sorato gave MACU some insurance when Kieran Chance found him open from five yards out on the left side off a deep cross from the right side and placed a header into the top left corner, giving the Evangels the 2-0 lead at the break.
In the 77th minute of the second half, Stephen Nganga was able to set up Castrejon for his first goal of the year when he launched a deep ball from the middle of the field to the junior mid streaking down the right sideline and he lofted a shot over the goalkeeper and into the left side to cap off the MACU scoring.
The Evangels dominated the match both offensively and defensively as the MACU attack took 23 shots and placed nine on-goal while the defense limited the Rams to just eight shots, four of which were on-target. Forisch led the MACU attack with five shots while Sorato attempted four and placed two on-goal.
On the defensive end, goalkeeper Austen Parker continued to add to his record-breaking season, notching his 10th shutout while making four saves to become the program's outright single season wins leader with 13, passing Jakob O'Meara-Gill with the mark.
Prior to the start of the match, Mid-America Christian honored its 11 graduating seniors: Bruno Bandeira, Joseph Carter, Jake Cowie, Francisco Flores, Stephen Nganga, Simon Van Rheeden, Caleb Roldan, Cesar Romero, Allan Sorato, Dominik Tajak and Gustavo Urbina.
With the win, Mid-America Christian has locked up the No. 2 seed in the SAC Tournament, but will have a chance to make a statement in the regular season finale as the Evangels will travel to Siloam Springs, Ark. on Tuesday, Nov. 5 for a 7 p.m. kickoff against the 2019 SAC Champions, John Brown.
