OKLAHOMA CITY – A couple of historic streaks for the top-seeded No. 9 MACU Men's Soccer team came to a tough end at the Dill Soccer Field as the Evangels suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat to third-seeded Oklahoma City on Tuesday night. 
 
SCORING SUMMARY 

• 2^nd Half – OCU – 78:10 – Goal: Ruben Fahiya Assist: Thomas Brulay – OCU 1, MACU 0 

 
MATCH SUMMARY 

• First Half 
  • Nearly 30 minutes into the contest it appeared as if Mid-America Christian (14-2-4) was going to have the opening goal as Josh Macklin relayed it up to Pietro Musso on the left pitch who pushed it through the net from about 15 yards out, however, Musso was flagged for offsides to keep it scoreless. 
  • Oklahoma City (13-1-4) was able to counter with 10:22 left in the half on a shot from the middle pitch by Hannan Ashraf, but Evangels goalie Cladio Fuentealba was able to stretch to his left on a dive to prevent the score. 
  • MACU was unable to put a shot on-goal in the first half on its two attempts, with the best opportunity to score coming about 20 minutes in on a cross from Federico Palacios from the right pitch that was just out of the reach of forward Tony Ngombi.  

• Second Half 
  • Nearly 10 minutes into the second half, the Evangels set themselves up with an opportunity to get on the board after a foul by the Stars set up a free kick by Enzo Nogue, who from about 40 yards out kicked it into the left side of box finding the head of Sebastian Rebolledo. However, the well-placed header clanked off the middle of the left crossbar to keep it to a scoreless tie.  
  • With 21:07 remaining, MACU was able to put its first shot on-goal on a strike by Mario Garcia from the right pitch at about 15 yards out, but the strong line drive kick went directly into the hands of Stars goalie Alexis Bertrand.
  • The Stars in the 78^th minute were able to connect on both the opener and the closer Thomas Brulay crossed it from the left side to the right for the right boot of Ruben Fahiya, who from about 20 yards out was able to strike a liner to the bottom left net just past the outstretched arms of Fuentealba to give the Stars a 1-0 advantage.  
  • With time winding down, the Evangels saw their best chance to score on the night with 3:14 remaining when a deflection off the Stars goalie found the foot of Ngombi from inside the OCU box, however, Ngombi's stellar chance sailed high over the crossbar to keep OCU up 1-0. 

MATCH NOTES 

• It was a relatively quiet first half for both teams with Oklahoma City outshooting Mid-America Christian's 5-2 with two shots on goal compared to MACU with no on-target chances.  
• The second half followed a similar pattern with OCU putting up just three shots compared to MACU's five, but the difference maker was the lone goal scored in the 78^th minute by Ruben Fahiya. 
• The defeat snapped the Evangels' 52-match unbeaten streak (45-0-7) with MACU's last home loss dating back to Mar. 23, 2021 in the 1-0 result to Southwest Christian. It was also the first time the Evangels have fallen to OCU since a 4-1 deficit on Oct. 26, 2018.
• MACU's SAC Tournament Championship streak comes to an end at four after the Evangels last season became the first team in the league's history to be a four-peat tourney champion.
• The 1-0 defeat is also a rare sight for the Evangels with the last occurrence coming on Sept. 3, 2022 at No. 9 MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.). 

COACH AARON HOXIE'S ANALYSIS 

• "Hard to find the words being the MACU coach responsible for ending the winning streak. I apologize to MACU nation for that, our performance tonight rests solely on my shoulders. I feel bad for the seniors who haven't experienced a loss in the final and to have it come tonight, again, my apologies to the seniors. Only way forward for me is to handle the responsibility like a man and get better." 
• "Tactically, I didn't think there was a whole lot into it that wasn't unexpected. Their high line gave us problems the first 20-25 minutes, but we found our way through it for the most part. I was happy to go into halftime tied 0-0, but they weren't all that threatening during those moments. Still, we looked like the team that was going to open the scoring as our threat behind them caused problems. Unlucky to score and to have it be counted offside, probably was, but that would have changed things dramatically." 
• "The boys executed the game plan coming out of the break and we were in full control.  The only way they were going to score was off a set piece, a counter or we turn it over. Credit to OCU, they made the play that determined the game and we did not. Those are the fine margins that exist in this game. Hopefully we get things going again next week in the NAIA National Tournament. We will find out on Saturday what's next." 
• "We must be gracious in wins and respectful in losses. In the end, credit needs to be given to OCU for their victory today.  They did what was necessary to win the game. Congratulations to them." 

UP NEXT 

• Mid-America Christian will now await to see what the postseason will have in-store for it as the NAIA Tournament Selection Show will take place on Saturday at 2 p.m. on the NAIA's YouTube channel.