RAMS RALLY FOR WIN OVER #21 RAVENS
September 6, 2008

Box Score

FORT WORTH, TX:  The Texas Wesleyan University men’s soccer team (2-1-1) trailed 3-0 after eight minutes, played the final 48 minutes down a man, and still came up with a 4-3 double overtime win over 21st ranked Benedictine College (2-1) at Martin Field on Saturday.

The Ravens who were coming off convincing wins over John Brown and Ottawa came out hot.  Just 1:24 into the contest, the Ravens’ Jon Shaad played a ball to the back post and Matt Denker finished, putting Benedictine on top.  In the 8th minute, Shaad scored off of Matt Scheipeter’s throw-in.  Forty-one seconds later, Sean Lewis scored and the Ravens appeared to be on their way to a rout.

However, the Rams weathered that initial storm and settled in defensively.  In the 36th minute, Rafael Franco played a ball into the box.  Sophomore Leo Cubrilo passed the ball back to Marcus Harris who hit the net and the Rams went to the half with a little momentum.

Four minutes into the second half, freshman Angel Villanueva found senior Christian Villasenor for a goal and Texas Wesleyan trailed 3-2.

Things got very interesting in the 55th minute.  At 54:05 Cubrilo scored off of an assist from Rafael Franco to tie the game at three.  At 54:38, Kyle Fritz was tagged with a yellow card.  Twenty-seven seconds later, Fritz was hit with a second yellow and the Rams found themselves a man down.

Texas Wesleyan played two-men down due to injury on two occasions, but the Rams defense controlled the ball, and Joakim Soderbaum came up with five of his eight saves in the second half.

Soderbaum came up with one more save in the first overtime and the game went to a second overtime period.  Three minutes and eleven seconds into the final period, Cubrilo threaded the needle between two Benedictine defenders and found the net for his third career game-winning goal.

“We had a terrible start,” head coach Josh Gibbs commented.  “But we were the better team out there and that played out over the rest of the game.  This team showed a lot of guts to get off the floor and get the job done.”

Texas Wesleyan will return to action on Tuesday, when they host the University of Science and Arts (OK).  That game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. start at Martin Field.