October 26, 2008
San Antonio – Funmilola Dada scored his first two goals of the season, helping St. Mary’s University to a convincing 4-0 win over Newman University in Heartland Conference men’s soccer action Sunday afternoon at St. Mary’s University Soccer Field. The women’s soccer team fell to Newman, 4-3, in overtime on the fourth goal of the game by Amanda Knabe.
Dada (Sr., Houston) had just one career goal entering Sunday’s game, but tallied twice – once in each half – to help lead a Rattler offense that posted its second highest goal total of the season. Sean Strater (So., Carrollton) and Joseph Diaz (Fr., San Antonio) each scored once for St. Mary’s in the convincing win. Adam Villanueva (Jr., DeSoto) had two assists and now has three this season.
Brett Collier (Jr., Schertz) and Jayson Horn (Sr., San Antonio) combined to shut out the Jets, making a combined seven saves. The shutout was the Rattlers second this season.
The Rattlers dominated play throughout, outshooting the Jets, 16-9 and taking six corner kicks to three for Newman.
With the win the Rattlers improved to 5-9 overall and 2-7 in Heartland Conference play, winning their second straight game. Newman fell to 5-7-4 and 2-3-2. St. Mary’s will hit the road for their next match, traveling to Wichita Falls to face top-ranked Midwestern State University on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
The women led nearly the entire game, but fell thanks to the incredible individual performance by Knabe. Knabe entered Sunday’s play with just five goals for the season, but nearly matched that total in leading the Jets from behind to the win.
The Rattlers took an early 2-0 lead on the first goal of the season by Melinda Gentry (So., Plano) and the fourth goal of the season by Elizabeth Rubi (Fr., Fort Worth). Just five minutes before the half Knabe made it a 2-1 game with goal off a pass from Brenna Dominguez. Then just 2:01 into the second half she struck again when she picked up a loose ball in the penalty area and found the net, tying the game at 2-2. But the Rattlers responded just 10 minutes later when Gentry scored her second goal of the game to give St. Mary’s the 3-2 advantage. That is where things would stay for nearly 30 minutes before Knabe picked up her third goal to tie things at 3-3 and send the game into overtime.
Just 4:29 into the first overtime period Knabe took a pass from Kayde Kluge and chipped the ball over the head of goalkeeper Roxana Carrasco (Fr., San Antonio) to give the Jets a 4-3 win.
With the loss the Rattlers fell to 4-12-1 overall and 3-7-0 in Heartland Conference play this season. Newman improved to 7-8-2 and 4-6-0. St. Mary’s will return to action on Friday when they head south to face Texas A&M International University in a Heartland Conference game at 5 p.m.