SPORTS
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Left: Sophomore Alexis Perry crosses the ball into the box from the corner. Perry was the leading goal scorer in the game against the Crimson Storm with four goals. (photo by Sarah Dean) Right: Junior David Stankovic dribbles past Southern Nazarene defenders. David Stankovic is now the current goal scoring leader for Ouachita’s Men’s Soccer team with three goals. (photo by Abby Blankenship)
Soccer teams play against SNU, OKBU, NSU BY RYAN YORK Sports Editor
The men’s and women’s soccer teams played four collective games last week. On Thursday, Oct. 21, both teams played against Great American Conference (GAC) opponent the Southern Nazarene University Crimson Storm. It was an attacking onslaught from the Lady Tigers, winning the game 7-0. Sophomore Alexis Perry scored four goals achieving a hat-trick and then some. As for the Men’s team it was a tightly-fought victory with the winning goal coming in the 76th minute. The final score was 2-1. The second round of games was on Saturday, Oct. 23, with both Tiger teams losing to their respective opponents. The Lady Tigers they lost to rival Oklahoma Baptist University 0-2. For the men’s team, it
was a loss to Northeastern State University 0-1. From the start of the Lady Tigers versus the Crimson Storm, Ouachita controlled the ball. Starting in the 25th minute, Ouachita broke open the flood gates with a goal from Junior Gracen Turner. Shortly afterward, the second goal came from Perry off an assist from Senior Jaymee Dotson in the 26th minute. Then, ending off a five-minute outburst, Alexis Perry scored her second goal from an assist by Turner in the 30th minute of the first half. As the clock closed on the 45th minute to take the teams to halftime, Freshman Ashton Inman received a beautiful through ball from Freshman Megan McKay, giving her a clear shot on goal from outside the box. Inman took the shot, putting the ball just over the SNU keeper giving the Lady Tigers a 4-0 lead at halftime.
As the second half started, Perry achieved her hat-trick in the 49th minute, assisted by Dotson. In the 60th minute, Turner achieved her second goal of the game giving the Tigers a 6-0 lead. Putting the nail in the coffin, Alexis Perry scored her fourth goal in the 67th minute giving the Lady Tigers the final score of 7-0. The men’s game against SNU started out with multiple shots from the Crimson Storm. In the first 12 minutes of play sophomore Armani Atilano had three saves. Shortly after, in the 16th minute, the Crimson Storm took the lead off a header by sophomore Daniel Trojman. In response, junior David Stankovic scored the equalizer goal off an assist from sophomore Ebon Jordan in the 33rd minute. The score was tied 1-1 at halftime. In the closing part of the second half, goal scorer Stankovic subbed
off for sophomore Marshall Prather. Two minutes after the substitution Prather gave Ouachita the lead 2-1. Sophomore Hagan Sanchez played the ball into the middle of the field where Prather received the ball. With a nice dribble to play on the inside of the SNU defender, Prather pushed forward to take the shot, putting the ball just left of the keeper. In the game against OKBU, the Lady Tigers fell short as the Bison focused play on a quick attacking strategy. This gave the Bison a numbers advantage in their attacking third, where adding in the accurate short passes set the Bison up for quality shot attempts. On the defensive end OKBU used an aggressive tactic where once they lost possession, they did not get back to recover but rather put heavy pressure on the Lady Tigers until they regained the ball.
This play style did not allow for Ouachita to have much control of the ball throughout the game. In the Men’s game against the RiverHawks the teams were evenly matched with neither side allowing for much of any goal scoring opportunities. The RiverHawks capitalized on one of their few opportunities in the first half giving them a 0-1 lead against the Tigers. The second half was more of the same as neither side allowed more that six shots. NSU sealed their victory with only allowing one shot attempt in the 89th minute. The next home game for the men’s team will be Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. against the Fort Hays State Tigers. The last men’s home game will be Oct. 30 at noon against the Newman University Jets. The next home game for the women’s team will be Nov. 6 at noon against the East Central University Tigers.
