Golden Eagles Knock Off City, Continue Historic Trend
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (October 6, 2015) -- Senior Aaron Estrada picked a good time to score his first collegiate goal as the John Brown men’s soccer team (7-4-1, 3-0-0 SAC) secured its fifth-consecutive victory with a 2-0 win over Oklahoma City (1-7-0, 1-1-0 SAC) on Tuesday (Oct. 6) evening at Stars Field.
With the victory, the Golden Eagles continue to remain tied atop the Sooner Athletic table alongside unbeatens Science & Arts (Okla.) and Southwestern Christian (Okla.). More impressively, the win marks JBU’s first five-game winning streak since the 2005 season.
Sophomore keeper Adam Holt notched his fifth-consecutive clean sheet and the 11th of his career. The shutout effort helped John Brown piece together its first fifth-consecutive shutout effort in 33 years, since the beginning of the 1982 season when JBU raced out to a 5-0-0 start. Holt (7-4-1) needed five saves, two in the last five minutes, to help preserve the victory and the shutout.
“That was a very big result tonight,” admitted head coach Scott Marksberry. “City is a very organized team, and they have been a bit of a mental hurdle for us the last couple of years. I thought our guys dug deep to get a win tonight. The second half was not our best soccer of the year, but we did a job on the defensive side of the ball.
“Our biggest concern right now is getting some of our guys healthy for the remainder of the season, but we will hopefully see a few guys closer to full strength by the time we get to Chickasha this weekend.”
Estrada tallied his first collegiate goal in the 33rd minute, which proved to be the game-winner. Holt began the play with a long punt that freshman Conner Haney was able to advance to freshman Kelvin Omondi. Omondi beat his defender towards the end line and sent a pass back into the penalty kick area for a scoring chance. Estrada emerged from the midfield and one-touched a strike from 15 yards to the bottom left corner for a 1-0 John Brown lead. Omondi earned his second assist of the season.
Although JBU out-shot the Stars 10-4 and 10-6 in the first and second half, respectively, City almost knotted the score at one apiece on two occasions in the waning moments of the game.
With just under five minutes left to play, OCU’s Aron Chapman got off a header in the box that forced Holt to retreat to his line. Just as the shot was about to slip under the crossbar, Holt dove back and tipped the attempt over the crossbar to maintain the lead. Then, with 1:16 left in the contest, City’s Jay Cox ran towards a one-on-one situation with Holt up the right flank off a long ball up the side. Holt bolted to meet Cox at the top of the 18, and barely bested the OCU forward in the footrace and blocked City’s attempt at a last-minute draw.
With the hosts still pressing, senior Guilherme Barbosa intercepted a ball deep in City territory and laid a backwards pass to junior Marco Cardona on the right flank. Unexpectedly, Cardona volleyed a shot to the far right post, which floated over the Stars keeper Vladimir Kalajdzic and into the right side of the netting to cap the scoring.
Kalajdzic made seven saves in the loss, dropping him to 1-7-0 on the year.
The Golden Eagles will now turn to Science & Arts (Okla.). JBU and the Drovers will meet on Saturday (Oct. 10) in Chickasha in a battle of unbeaten teams. Kick off is slated for 7:30 p.m.
