Oct. 31, 2010

Final Stats

Texas A&M International University took a huge step towards its first Heartland Conference title with a 2-1 Halloween night victory over St. Edward's at Dustdevil Field. The win boosts TAMIU to a 6-1 league record, a mark which is one game better than SEU's 5-2 conference mark.

Both teams close out conference play this weekend, with TAMIU playing a road game at Newman and St. Edward's hosting UTPB. A win by the Dustdevils would secure the conference title while a TAMIU loss and St. Edward's win would force the title to be determined by the league's tie-breaker system.

Senior Soamy Bautista provided TAMIU a 1-0 halftime lead when he placed a diving header into the net off of a free kick by João Bacchi in the 40th minute.

That score stood until Abel Villavicencio pushed the lead to 2-0 when he headed Christian Salazar's corner kick into the net in the 69th minute.

The intensity turned up at that point, with Daniel Riley cutting the deficit to 2-1 for St. Edward's with a short-range header off of a free kick by Bryan Booth from 25 yards out in the 71st minute.

Riley was injured after colliding with TAMIU goalkeeper Emmanuel Frias on that score and a 30 minute delay ensued until Riley left the field under the supervision of EMTs. Frias received a red card for his part in the collision and Jesús Cisneros took over in goal for the Dustdevils after the ejection.

SEU (9-5-2 overall) recorded both shots taken the rest of the game but Cisneros made the save on a rising shot by Sean Arters in the 75th minute before snagging a desperation shot by Booth with seconds remaining to keep the score at 2-1.

Each team finished with six shots on goal. Frias and Cisneros combined for five saves for the TAMIU (9-5-2) while Matt Moore made four saves for the Hilltoppers.

It was physical game as might be expected. There were a total of 11 yellow cards and three red cards issued.