River Forest, Ill. -- The Concordia University Chicago men's soccer team made program history on Monday afternoon with their fifth-consecutive victory, tying their longest such streak ever. They welcomed the Milwaukee School of Engineering to Concordia Stadium and handed them their first loss of conference play by a final score of 2-1. It's their first win over MSOE since the 2004 season.
The Raiders broke the ice less than four minutes into the game to take an early 1-0 lead, the only goal they would score all afternoon.
That early lead held up for more than 30 minutes before senior forward Dominick Christiansen (Plainfield, Ill.) scored his second goal of the year, a header off an assist from freshman Julian Yanez (Cicero, Ill.) to even things at one.
Less than four minutes later, junior forward German Tinoco (Lyons, Ill.) capitalized on a breakaway opportunity and found the back of the net for the second time this season to put his team ahead. It was fellow junior Samuel Epperly (Elgin, Ill.) who set Tinoco up with a lead pass on the breakaway.
The Cougars played aggressive all afternoon, out-shooting the Raiders by a margin of 20-13 thanks in large part to an opportunistic offense and a relentless defensive effort that allowed very few looks for MSOE.
The looks the Raiders did get didn't amount to much. Cougar goalkeepers, juniors Nicholas Pasut (New Boston, Mich.) and Joseph Perez (Crystal Lake, Ill.), faced a combined seven shots on goal and both made three saves.
As the final minutes of the game approached, CUC was able to take care of the ball and cruise to their fifth-straight win. They've allowed only two goals over that stretch.
It's another quick turnaround for the team, as they play host to the Illinois Institute of Technology on Wednesday afternoon. Kick-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. and a stream will be available on cucougars.com/coverage.
