GOLDEN, Colo. – Two goals in the final 16 minutes Thursday night proved to be the undoing for the Colorado School of Mines men's soccer team in their Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match against MSU Denver. The Orediggers (0-8-2, 0-2-0) fell behind early but rallied to tie the match in the 71st minute before the Roadrunners (5-2-3, 2-1-0) pulled away with two more goals to secure the win.
Hudson Waddell provided an early moment of excitement in the fourth minute as the opening shot of the night banged off the woodwork in a near-miss for the Orediggers.
Zach MacDonald made his first save of the night in the 17th minute as chances proved hard to come by in the opening period. After an over the shoulder shot from
Marcus Saa was saved late in the first half, MSU Denver scored the night's first goal in the 38th minute. Following a scramble off a free kick, Kenji McCracken played a cross of the endline across the face of goal past the reach of MacDonald to find Henry Knoll in the center of the six for the easy tap in to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
The Orediggers turned up the pressure in the second half and made the Roadrunners sweat it out as play resumed. A shot by Saa in the 48th minute off a free kick caught keeper Dominic Miller out of position, but an MSUD defender was able to body up the shot to prevent the equalizer for the time being. Mines did eventually draw level with a beautiful sequence in the 71st minute. After earning a goal kick, MacDonald returned the ball to play with a booming kick to midfield that was headed on past midfield by
Djaz Less. A second header by
Murray Peart played the ball down to open field where Garcia Oliveras won a footrace for possession before taking two touches and shooting just inside the top of the box back to the near post to even the match at 1-1.
Unfortunately, things didn't stay even for long as the Roadrunners scored again in the 73rd minute as Jared Mojardin tucked a shot between MacDonald and the near post following a ball from Knoll. MSUD put things further out of reach in the 88th minute when Aran Garza was the recipient of a fortuitous carom. His initial shot off a pass from John Lucio was saved off the crossbar by MacDonald, but the rebound trickled right underneath the Mines keeper as he landed. The impact of MacDonald landing atop the ball was enough for it to roll across the goal line to make it 3-1. A pair of last-ditch shots by Garcia Oliveras closed out the night as the Orediggers again found themselves outdone in the waning moments.
NOTABLES
-Garcia Oliveras recorded his second goal of the season, moving into a tie for the team lead with Peart and
Avi Levin
-Peart meanwhile recorded his second assist of the season and is now tied with Garcia Oliveras for the team lead in that category
-Less recorded his first career point with an assist on the goal as well
-MacDonald ended the night with four saves in goal
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Aidan Wells became the second Oredigger this season to don jersey #99 following an equipment issue in the first half, joining Peart who did so in the Sept. 16 match at Adams State
UP NEXT
Mines is back home Sunday at 2:30 p.m. as they'll take on Colorado Christian in game two of a doubleheader following the women's match against MSU Denver.
Fans can keep up with Mines men's soccer on X and Instagram at @minesmsoc and @mines_msoc. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, X and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.
