River Forest, Ill. -- History! The Concordia University Chicago men's soccer team (9-4-2, 6-2-2) picked up their sixth consecutive win on Wednesday afternoon, defeating the Scarlet Hawks of the Illinois Institute of Technology (6-10-1, 2-7-1) by a final score of 4-3. The sixth-straight victory sets a new program record.
It was perhaps the most thrilling victory of the season for the Cougars, coming from behind on three separate occasions before taking their first lead of the game with just over three minutes remaining in regulation.
The Scarlet Hawks struck first in the eighth minute before senior Ryan Kuhlman (Darien, Ill.) scored the game's first equalizer just over eight minutes later off a CUC corner kick. It's been quite a run for Kuhlman, as he now has five goals in his previous four contests.
Tied at one goal a piece out of the half, IIT quickly jumped back out in front 2-1 in the 46th minute.
Sophomore Oscar Montejano (Zion, Ill.) caught the Scarlet Hawks' goalkeeper leaning the wrong direction on a penalty kick in the 63rd minute to even things up yet again for CUC.
Less than 10 minutes after the Montejano goal, the Scarlet Hawks took their third lead of the game on a third unassisted goal. They carried that lead into the 83rd minute, putting the Cougars on the brink of losing their longest winning streak in program history.
The Cougars weren't about to go away easy, however. A beautiful lead pass by junior German Tinoco (Lyons, Ill.) set up Montejano for his second goal of the day, tying things up at three with six minutes remaining.
Tinoco was just getting started. Less than three minutes after assisting on the equalizer, the junior found the back of the net off a ricochet to give the Cougars their first lead of the afternoon and send the crowd into a frenzy.
Despite only leading for 3:06 of a 90-minute match, the Cougars' resiliency and toughness prevailed as they etched their name in the CUC record books.
The team will go for their seventh-straight win this Saturday, Oct. 23 in Mequon, Wis., against the Falcons of Concordia University Wisconsin. Kick-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., and a stream will be available through cucougars.com/coverage.
