By Abel Flessner
The men’s soccer team defeated Marian University on Saturday 2-1, securing the homecoming win. The win was the Stars’ first of the season after a rough 0-4-2 start.
The game went scoreless until the beginning of the second half, when Marian went up 1-0 in the 51st minute.
The Stars were quick to respond, however. In the 53rd minute, Junior midfielder and leading goal scorer Tristen Banquil was injured and exited when fouled inside the penalty box.
“Unfortunately, I cramped,” Banquil said, “I’m feeling all good now . I was able to get back onto the field and I’m happy I was able to get back out there and help.”
The Stars were awarded a penalty kick, and after Banquil exited with the injury, Senior midfielder Ryan Gutierrez’s stepped up and sunk the game-tying penalty kick.
“In a critical moment I had to score, and then we had to grind out the win,” Gutierrez said.
The Stars stayed focused in the rest of the second half. In the 81st minute, sophomore midfielder Jonathan Almaguer scored the go-ahead goal, putting the Stars up 2-1.
“It feels great to be able to help the team,” Almaguer said, “we needed this win to build our confidence throughout conference.”
The Stars will look to keep up the momentum after a big homecoming win, headed into a long stretch of conference play.
“The first [win] took too long,” head coach Eric Baumann said. “We’ve been very competitive, we’ve been in games, we haven’t gotten the W. We needed it today and we got it.”
The Stars came close to a couple of wins earlier in the season but were ultimately unable to come through. Now, having the first win under their belt, they look to keep up the momentum.
“We’ve got to stay level headed,” Banquil said, “we have to keep moving forward because we have 11 more games to focus on.”
The Stars look to stay hot after back-to-back wins when they head to St. Norbert College on Saturday.
