Box Score Sept. 23, 2014 – After falling behind 1-3, the Concordia University Chicago men's soccer team staged one of their biggest wins in recent years with a 4-3 victory against last year's second-place finishers in conference, the Aurora University Spartans.
"We didn't make any tactical changes down 1-3," said CUC head coach
Micah Middendorf. "We just got out and did what we were supposed to do. Sometimes, our players don't know how good they can be, but they had a lot of resolve today and got the job done. It was important for us to finish this game today and come out on top over one of the top conference teams."
The first half of the game was a rather uneventful affair controlled by Aurora. CUC fell behind 0-1 on an own goal in the 13
th minute. The shot totals were 9-4 in favor of Aurora.
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In the second half, it again appeared that Aurora would pull away as they scored just three minutes into the half to go up 2-0. In the 51
st minute, CUC responded as
Dan Krajewski (Addison, IL/Addison Trail) crossed it from the left side and
Fabian Robles (Cicero, IL/St. Joseph) headed the ball home. However, the Spartans scored again in the 63
rd minute to make it 3-1 and appear to put the game away.
The Cougars continued to claw and, in the 66
th minute,
DeAndre McLaurin (Joliet, IL/Joliet West) headed a ball over a defender 28 yards from goal and
Brendan Mullane (Park Ridge, IL/Maine South) put it past the Spartan keeper from the half volley. The wonder strike by
Brendan Mullane energized the Cougars and they increased the pressure on the Spartans.
In the 75
th minute,
Martin Vargas (Cicero, IL/Morton East) was instrumental in playing the ball to McLaurin through a scrum, and just as happened against Edgewood on Saturday, McLaurin scored. Concordia-Chicago seized the momentum and, in the 84
th minute, a corner kick from Mullane was headed by
Dylan Pavlisin (Orange, CA/Orange Lutheran) to Vargas who one touched it to McLaurin in front of goal for the 4-3 lead! Through some able last second goal keeping by
Jorge Guzman (Cicero, IL/Morton East), the Cougars were able to see out the clock and secure the victory.
McLaurin has now scored five goals in the last three games. He said afterwards, "We just woke up and got after it in the last 30 minutes. We never quit playing."
The Cougars' (3-2-2, 1-1-0 NACC) next game is at MSOE in Milwaukee on Saturday.
