Sept. 25, 2011
Final Stats
Stepping in for Emmanuelle Frias, Jesus Cisneros made three critical saves Sunday night, leading the Texas A&M International men's soccer team to a 1-0 win over St. Edwards. Spaniard Diego Manzano-Cano scored the only goal of the game lifting the Dustdevils (5-1-1) to a perfect 3-0 conference record.
Coming off difficult matches in their previous games, both teams started slowly, picking up just a few shots in the early minutes. The first scoring threat came from St. Edwards in the 16th minute when J.R. Ellis found himself one-on-one with Cisneros. Diving to his right, the sophomore from Dallas was able to extinguish the threat and preserve the 0-0 tie. "That was one of our few defensive mistakes of the match," said Head Coach Claudio Arias. "Our goal tonight was to not make the same mistakes we made against Incarnate Word and fortunately Chuey came up big for us when we had that early lapse."
In the 38th minute Cano put TAMIU on the board after Adan Villavicencio blasted a shot that deflected off keeper Mitch McKeefer's chest. "It was a very strange play," said Cano. "Adan shot from outside the box, the keeper couldn't hang on and it ended up right in front of me." The Sophomore from Madrid said the win was crucial as the team heads into a match versus another nationally ranked opponent, "It was very important for us to win tonight, the loss against Incarnate Word really disappointed us because we were so excited to play in such a large scale game. We have Midwestern State next and they are very good so tonight was big."
The TAMIU defense remained solid for the rest of the first half and the Dustdevils took a 1-0 lead into the break.
The second half was all about consistency for TAMIU. Coach Arias said he was very pleased with the way his team was able to play with a lead, "We did our job and we didn't make any crucial mistakes. We did a good job maintaining our poise to close out the match."
In the 73rd Minute, St. Edward forward J.R. Ellis received his second yellow card of the match resulting in a red card and the Hilltoppers were forced to play a man down for the remainder of the game. In the waning minutes of the game (89th), St. Edwards was able to get one final shot on goal coming off a header by Gavin Bruce. Once again Cisneros was on point coming up with his final save of the night.
The Dustdevils will now go on a five-day break as they prepare to take on Midwestern State in Wichita Falls. As of Sunday night, the Mustangs were ranked 12th in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. Kick off for that game if Friday night at 7 p.m.
