OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 22 Mid-America Christian men's soccer team dominated on both sides of the field as the Evangels defeated Oklahoma Panhandle State 6-0 in the Sooner Athletic Conference Quarterfinal at Evangel Field on Friday night.
 
SCORING SUMMARY

• First Half
  • MACU – 6:53 – Goal: Rodrigo Albuquerque (16) – MACU 1, OPSU 0
  • MACU – 17:12 – Goal: Cesar Ramirez (2), Assist: Dante Luz – MACU 2, OPSU 0
  • MACU – 35:24 – Goal: Adrian Heinle (2), Assists: Rodrigo Albuquerque, Nikola Djuric – MACU 3, OPSU 0
• Second Half
  • MACU – 63:05 – Goal: Cesar Ramirez (3) – MACU 4, OPSU 0
  • MACU – 88:33 – Goal: Josue Alanis (1), Assists: Cesar Ramirez, Hector Valles – MACU 5, OPSU 0
  • MACU – 89:23 – Goal: Adrian Heinle (3) – MACU 6, OPSU 0

MATCH SUMMARY

• Mid-America Christian scored on its first opportunity of the match. In the seventh minute, the ball got away from Mason Gonzalez on a breakaway down the right side. However, when OPSU goalkeeper John Avalos tried to clear it, Rodrigo Albuquerque intercepted it from 35 yards out and blasted the game-winner into the open goal.
• In the 18^th minute, Cesar Ramirez gave the Evangels some insurance when Dante Luz found him on a breakaway pass from midfield to the left side of the box, firing a 13-yard shot from the left side through the right post to extend the MACU lead to 2-nil.
• Albuquerque had a golden opportunity to score his second goal of the contest in the 31^st minute when Luz found him breaking away down the right side on a deep ball from the left side of the field. Albuquerque tried to slip his shot past the keeper toward the left post, but his attempted bounced off the post and right back to Avalos.
• Five minutes later, MACU was able to get its third goal of the half when Nikola Djuric and Albuquerque made some nifty passes toward the top of the 18-yard box. That set up Adrian Henle, who cut in toward the left post, beat the keeper and slipped a shot in to make it 3-0.
• It appeared the Evangels were going to take a four-goal advantage into the half when Albuquerque put an excellent left side cross into the middle of the box off a short corner as it found the head of Endri Copa and went into the net, but the goal was negated due to an offside call.
• The Evangels had limited opportunities early in the second half, but Ramirez managed to create his own shot in the 64^th minute. On the play, Ramirez intercepted a pass from 25 yards out, dribbled toward the middle and fired a misdirected left-footed shot toward the right side of the net for his second of the match, making it a four-goal MACU advantage.
• Mid-America Christian closed out the match with a pair of goals in the final two minutes. After Sven van den Oever intercepted a cross on a diving save, he sent an outlet to Hector Valles on a quick counter, who passed it ahead to Ramirez at midfield. Ramirez launched a beautiful long ball from the right side to Josue Alanis breaking down the left side as he slipped a shot in past the keeper to the right post for his first score of the season.
• A minute later, Heinle put through his second goal of the match when he picked off an attempted clear and found the left side of the goal from 16 yards out to close out the 6-0 victory.

MATCH NOTES

• Mid-America Christian finished with a 20-7 advantage in shots with 11 of those shots being on-goal with just three Oklahoma Panhandle State shots being on-frame.
• Cesar Ramirez turned in his first multi-goal match with the Evangels while his assist allowed him to finish with a career-high five points.
• Adrian Heinle, who is a freshman that just started competing in the spring, also turned in his first multi-goal match with MACU.
• Rodrigo Albuquerque netted his 16^th goal and 10^th game-winner of the season. By also recording his eighth assist, he moved into a five-way tie for the most assists in a single season during the NAIA era, joining Willy Deleon, Raphael Bonelle, Pero Mikulic and Fabian Forisch. He also moved up to 40 total points on the year, becoming just the second Evangels player to reach the 40-point plateau as he sits just behind Dominik Tajak (49) in the MACU record book.
• The Evangels will advance to their fourth straight Sooner Athletic Conference Semifinal match. MACU started the streak on Nov. 2, 2017 when it defeated Science & Arts 4-2 in penalty kicks after finishing regulation in a 1-1 tie. They followed it up with a 2-0 victory over Oklahoma City in the SAC Quarters on Nov. 3, 2018 and defeated Texas Wesleyan 3-2 in overtime on Nov. 8, 2019.
• Mid-America Christian moved to 3-0 all-time against Oklahoma Panhandle State after the two teams started facing each other last season. It was also the first time the Evangels have played the Aggies at Evangel Field with the previous two wins coming at Southern Nazarene's soccer field on Nov. 6, 2020 and Community Christian School's field on Oct. 26, 2019.
• The MACU men's soccer program held a Senior Night ceremony prior to the start of the match for its three graduating seniors: Juan Cediel, Carlos Castrejon and Josue Alanis.

NEXT UP

• Mid-America Christian will face Science & Arts for the third time this season in the Sooner Athletic Conference Semifinal. The Evangels will host the sixth-seeded Drovers at Evangel Field on Apr. 6 for a 7 p.m. kickoff.