CHICAGO, Ill. - The Rockford University men's soccer team concluded its season on Wednesday evening with a thrilling 1-1 draw at Illinois Tech. Rockford trailed 1-0 heading into the final minutes of the match, but
Javier Palacios came up with a huge goal in the 88th minute to tie it up. Neither team had a shot on goal the rest of the way, leading to a 1-1 tie to close out the Regents' season. Statistically, Illinois Tech had a fairly large advantage in the match, but the Regents made the most of their opportunities. IIT held an 18-9 edge in shots and a 9-4 edge in shots on goal.
- The first half of the match was a classic defensive battle. The Regents and Scarlet Hawks combined for just 8 shots, only one of which was on goal, as the match entered the half scoreless.
- The second half saw a significant increase in offensive pressure put on by both teams. There were a total of 19 shots over the final 45 minutes, 12 of which came on goal.
- It was the Scarlet Hawks who struck first with an unassisted goal by Christian Garcia in the 52nd minute of the match.
- The score remained 1-0 until Rockford finally broke through in the closing minutes.
- Javier Palacios took a nice pass from Brian Daniels and beat the Illinois Tech keeper to tie the match at 1-1 with only 2 minutes and 27 seconds remaining.
- Neither team was able to score the rest of the way, as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
- Rockford's 1-1 draw was the Regents' first non-loss to Illinois Tech since the formation of the NACC.
- Javier Palacios scored his third goal of the season. He finished with 2 shots, both of which were on goal, and 1 goal.
- Brian Daniels had 1 assist.
- Abraham Gonzalez had 3 shots, including 1 shot on goal.
- Sebastian Sobolewski also had 3 shots, with 1 shot on goal.
- Gustavo Lazcano made 8 saves in the match. Lazcano finished the year leading the NACC in saves (106) and saves per game (6.24) and was third in save percentage (.803).
