OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian men's soccer team will look to continue its winning streak on its home field as the Evangels will host Louisiana State University Shreveport in their home opener on Wednesday. MACU will kick things off at noon against the Pilots at Evangel Field.
LAST TIME OUT
In a battle of early season unbeatens, Mid-America Christian (3-0) put together its best scoring output of the 2019 season, notching five goals in a dominant 5-2 victory at Sterling College (3-1) on Saturday.
Freshman midfielder Pero Mikulic provided a spark for the Evangels off the bench, scoring a pair of goals to lead the Evangels. Allan Sorato and Stephen Nganga also recorded their first goals of the season while Caleb Roldan tallied his second score of the 2019 campaign.
SCOUTING THE PILOTS
LSU Shreveport comes into Wednesday's match with a 2-1-1 record and pulled off a big 2-1 upset at No. 23 University of Science & Arts (Okla.) on Monday. The Pilots have proven to be a tough defensive team during the 2019 campaign, allowing just four goals in their first four matches, which includes a 0-0 shutout against No. 3 William Carey (Miss.)
The Pilots possess a balanced scoring attack that has seen six different players score LSUS's seven goals this season. Senior forward Chris Eduardo currently leads LSU Shreveport with a pair of goals with his last being the game-winner in the 86th minute against the Drovers on Monday.
The goalkeeping duties for the Pilots has been split between sophomore Saul Ocampo and Nikolas Fernandez so far this season. Both keepers have played a pair of matches, with Ocampo holding a 2-0 record, conceding two goals and making eight saves while Fernandez has given up three goals and made 11 saves while going 0-1-1 in his first season.
HISTORY WITH THE PILOTS
The Evangels and Pilots will be playing against each other for just the second time in their programs' histories with MACU holding the 1-0 edge in the series. The last time the two squads met was back on Aug. 29, 2009 in Shreveport, La. as the Evangels pulled away with a dominating 4-1 victory. Bryce Janz and Andy Mendoza each recorded a pair of goals for MACU in the match.
MAN DOWN? NO PROBLEM!
Mid-America Christian faced some major adversity in its match against Sterling. During the 22nd minute with the score tied at one, a MACU player was issued a controversial red card, putting the Evangels down a player for the final 68 minutes of the match. Despite needing to play 10 vs. 11 for the remainder of the match, MACU played inspired soccer during the second half, outscoring the Warriors 4-1 in the period to pull away with the 5-2 victory.
DON'T MISS MIKULIC
In his first action during the 2019 season, Mikulic impressed with not only his first goal with the Evangels, but became the first MACU player during the 2019 season to score a pair of goals in a single match. The freshman midfielder from Croatia played just 35 minutes for the Evangels, but he took advantage of every opportunity in the crucial game by converting on both his shot attempts.
STAYING TRUE ON THE ROAD
The Evangels will look to bring the same success they had on the road to Evangel Field tomorrow. The 2019 season is just the second time in the program's history that MACU started off the season with three true road matches. MACU went 3-0, outscoring its opponents 8-2 in the contests. The last time Mid-America Christian started off the season with three true road matches, it happened during the 2015 campaign as the Evangels went 2-1, opening the season with a 2-0 loss at Midamerica Nazarene (Kan.) but bounced back with wins at Grace (Ind.) 3-1 and St. Thomas (Texas) by a score of 3-2.
