Texas Border Business
EDINBURG, Texas – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men’s soccer team picked up a convincing 4-1 victory over the Omaha Mavericks on Saturday at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
UTRGV (2-3-1) senior defender Jan Engels had an incredible match, tallying four points to tie his career high. Engels assisted on UTRGV’s first two goals, scored by freshman defender Juan Pablo Gonzalez and senior forward Moiad Ankir, then scored his own. Freshman goalkeeper Alexis Gonzalez, making his first career start, notched one save.
The Vaqueros came out on fire and took a 1-0 lead 55 seconds into the match. Engles and Co. raced down the pitch, then the senior sent a shot off the left post that rebounded to Juan Pablo Gonzalez, waiting on the opposite side. Gonzalez roped a shot past the diving keeper.
The remainder of the first half was a battle. UTRGV applied consistent offensive pressure and put together some scoring chances, but Omaha (3-3-1) goalkeeper Nathanael Sallah kept the lead at one.
UTRGV started the second half even stronger than the first, putting two goals in the back of the net in less than three minutes. Ankir charged up the right side of the pitch and Engels hit him with a perfect pass, allowing Ankir to send a hard shot through the hands of the diving keeper to make it 2-0. Shortly after, Engels wrangled an Omaha turnover and scored from the top of the box.
In the 66th minute, junior forward Martin Tellez made it 4-0 to cap a well-executed passing attack. Graduate student midfielder Yusuf Cueceoglu sent a pass to sophomore midfielder Cesar Baltazar to the left of the box, and he shoveled a diagonal pass to Tellez deep on the right side of the box to set up Tellez’s goal.
Despite the lopsided score, both teams continued to attack hard, leading to the match getting a bit chippy in the final 20 minutes. A red card was issued to a Vaquero, leaving UTRGV playing with one less man on the pitch. Omaha took advantage and scored in the 79th minute off the foot of Tevin Rochester.
Four goals is the most the Vaqueros have scored in regulation since Oct. 2019. UTRGV’s next match will be Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. at California State University-Northridge.
