LOVES PARK, Ill. - The Rockford University men's soccer team (7-8-1, 2-5 NACC) fell to the Benedictine University Eagles (9-5-0, 6-1 NACC) on Thursday night at Sportscore Two. The Eagles won the match by a final score of 4-1 but the game was much closer than the score would indicate. The Regents found themselves down 2-0 going into the half before getting one back in the second. Rockford could not find an equalizer and the Eagles capitalized twice late with the Regents on the offensive.
- The Eagles had a chance to get on the board early but that was foiled in part by a great save by Edgar Gomez (Belvidere, Ill.) before Fernando Mercado (Harvard, Ill.) slid in to block the rebounded shot.
- Benedictine found the back of the net this time in the 31' as Lukasz Sulka scored to make it 1-0.
- It was Sulka again who gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead scoring with just 20 seconds before half.
- The score would remain 2-0 until 72:43 when Cruz Marquez (Arvada, Colo.) brought the Regents to within one.
- Marquez found himself at the line for a penalty kick and executed it perfectly placing it neatly into the bottom right corner to make it a 2-1 game.
- With Rockford attempting to tie the game it surrendered a foul in their quarter of the field and the Eagles capitalized.
- Erik Stammer for Benedictine scored as the ball got sent into the box on a free kick at the 76' mark.
- The Eagles put another one in the back of the net just three minutes later to go on to win the game by a score of 4-1.
- Edgar Gomez made multiple impressive saves on the night as he had 7 saves on 11 shots.
- With that penalty kick Cruz Marquez now has 2 goals on the season.
The Rockford University men's soccer team returns to the pitch when it travels to Marian on Saturday, October 13. The match is scheduled for 2:30 PM.
