MSOC Arizona Christian Pregame - 10/7/20

Men's Soccer 10/7/2020 5:10:00 PM Adam Stanek - MACU Sports Information

Men’s Soccer Ready To Wrap-Up Three-Match Home Stand Against Firestorm

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian men's soccer team will be wrapping up its three-match home stand at Evangel Field on Thursday with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff against the Arizona Christian Firestorm.

LAST TIME OUT
Mid-America Christian (2-0) made a thrilling comeback in its last outing against Bellevue (Neb.) on Oct. 3. After giving up the go-ahead goal in just the second minute, the Evangels rallied in the second half.
In his return from injury, sophomore midfielder Pero Mikulic scored the game-tying goal in the 70^th minute when Dante Luz was able to steal the ball away from a Bruins defender and dish it to the open Mikulic in the middle of the box to draw the game even at 1-1.
The Evangels continued to put the pressure on BU and with just under a minute remaining, Rodrigo Albuquerque's cross pass from the right side of the box deflected off the hand of a Bellevue defender, setting up a penalty kick with only 53 seconds on the clock.
On that PK attempt, Albuquerque was able to juke out the goalkeeper and fire a shot inside the lower left post to propel the Evangels to a 2-1 victory.

SCOUTING THE FIRESTORM
Arizona Christian makes its way into Thursday's match with a 1-1 record after taking on a pair of Sooner Athletic Conference teams to open the season last week. In the Firestorm's season-opener at Wayland Baptist on Oct. 1, ACU jumped out to a 3-2 halftime lead, but were unable to hang on as the Pioneers fought back to hand the Firestorm a 4-3 defeat. However, Arizona Christian was able to get in the win column two days later in Goodwell, Oklahoma as ACU scored three first half goals to get a 3-1 victory over Oklahoma Panhandle State.
Through the first two matches, five different players have netted goals for the Firestorm, led by Rhett Livingston with a pair of scores, both of which came in the loss at Wayland Baptist. Tatsuma Yuki is the team's top distributor so far during the 2020-21 campaign, notching two of ACU's six assists.
Josue Delgadillo and Andres Arce have each started a game at goalkeeper for Arizona Christian as Arce is coming off the Firestorm's winning performance against the Aggies, allowing only one goal and made five saves for an .833 save percentage in the victory.

HISTORY WITH THE FIRESTORM
Mid-America Christian will be playing the Firestorm for just the second time in program history. The Evangels will be gunning for the home-and-away sweep after MACU went into Phoenix last season on Sept. 2, 2019 and defeated the No. 21 team in the NAIA by a score of 1-0. In that win, senior Simon Van Rheeden netted the game-winner in the 81^st minute. Austen Parker played a stellar game in-goal for the Evangels as well, making six saves to pick up his second shutout victory of the season.

GETTING BACK TO FULL STRENGTH
While the Evangels had to play shorthanded in the season-opener against Texas A&M-Texarkana on Sept. 26, MACU able to get some key pieces back healthy for last week's win over Bellevue. In his return, Pero Mikulic made his presence felt by scoring the equalizer for his 15^th career goal. Mikulic ranked third on the team in scoring last season with 14 goals while his 36 points was tied for the team lead. The Evangels were also glad to get NCCAA Second Team All-American defender Fabian Forisch back in the lineup. In 2019, Forisch was an impact player on both sides of the field, finishing tied for the team lead in 2019 with eight assists alongside Mikulic.

DEFENSE WINS
Mid-America Christian continues to play stellar on the defensive side of the field. Despite making an early miscue against Bellevue last week, the Evangels defenders have clamped down on the opposing attack, limiting teams to only 6.5 shots per game while only a total of five have been on-frame. The defense is playing at an even higher level than during the team's record-setting 2019 season, where MACU allowed a program record low 0.9 goals on 8.6 shots per game.

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