The Southern Oregon University Raiders experienced their second defeat of the season against #11 ranked Corban on Friday. The Warriors took the lead with a shot that went from left to right and managed to sneak past the goalkeeper. Less than a minute later SOU’s Mitchell Pinney zipped through Corban’s defense to score a 17 yard goal and tie the game. After a second overtime (OT) Corban managed to sneak in a final goal to defeat the Raiders 2-1.
The next day SOU went up against Northwest Christian, which ended in a 2-2 tie. The Raiders trailed with a two point deficit before Sean McManamon scored a 27 yard free kick to make the score 2-1. A little over 30 minutes later Magana sent in a head butter to tie the game 2-2.
With the Southern Oregon University men’s soccer team in their second season, they’re standing at four wins, two losses, and one tie. The Raider’s first two conference games were both blowouts with 11-0 and 3-0 victories against Walla Walla and Multnomah. Both Dakota Scott and Carlos Magana for the Raiders documented their first hat tricks (scoring three goals in a game) for the first time in program history against Walla Walla.
The game began with a shot by Sean McManamon that struck a Walla Walla player and landed in their goal to make the score 1-0. A little over a minute later Ahmon Afenegus scored to make the score 2-0. Following this there were goals from Dakota Scott, Sean McManamon, Mitchell Pinney, Carlos Magana, Paul Matyas, and Jared Delaney to defeat Walla Walla 11-0. The scoring slowed in the Raiders’ game against Multnomah the following day. With goals from Mitchell Piney, Dakota Scott, and Travis Hopkins the Raiders grasped onto another victory of 3-0.
SOU’s men’s soccer had a rough season opener against Saint Martin’s University. This was the team’s first time competing against an NCAA Division II opponent. Within the first 20 minutes, SMU scored their first goal giving them a 1-0 lead on SOU. At 53 minutes into the game, SOU’s Sean McManamon put in a goal to tie the game 1-1. Just seconds later, SMU kicked in another goal off of the defection by SOU’s goalkeeper, Jonathan Morales, to put SMU ahead permanently. About 20 minutes later, SMU tapped the ball into the net bringing the score to 3-1. Less than a minute later, SOU’s Dakota Scott head butted a goal with the assist of Kelly Gieber to leave the Raider’s trailing 3-2.
The following two games against NCAA Division III George Fox and Linfield were both blowout wins. With goals from sophomores, Paul Matyas and Carlos Magana, the Raiders defeated George Fox 2-0. Just three days later SOU defeated Linfield with two goals scored by sophomore, Daniel Zamores and one goal each by freshman, Kelly Gieber and sophomore Mitchell Pinney to place the Raiders at a 4-0 victory.
As the Raiders’ soccer team looks to have a promising season, head coach Biniam Afenegus believes there is always room for improvement. “Our guys have been doing a good job so far,” says Afenegus. “We need to keep on being stingy on our defense. We’ve let the ball slip away a few times and we need to work on our defense strategies.”
The Raiders hope to claim another win against Warner Pacific on September 9th at 1pm in Portland, Oregon.
