Jack Hoover
SPORTS EDITOR
No team in the Summit League has had as good a season in 2019 as the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.
Starting their season off at 12-2 and being ranked No. 24 in the nation, the Golden Eagles came into Saturday’s match against the Omaha Mavericks hoping to keep up their impressive form.
At the end of the day, it would not be the Mavericks who would end the Golden Eagles winning ways, as Oral Roberts got out of Caniglia Field with a 3-0 win.
Omaha, with a win against Oral Roberts, would have had a shot at winning the Summit League regular season, but as it stands now, only Oral Roberts and Western Illinois are competition for first place.
The Mavericks started the match out strong, as a long through ball to junior Diego Guttierrez almost found him in behind the Golden Eagles back line, before the ball was cleared out for a corner kick.
Shortly after that play, in the fifth minute of the game, the Golden Eagles used a counterattack to cut the Omaha defense open. Oral Robert’s Dante Brigida received a cross from Tanguy Guerineau, which he finished calmly passed Omaha goalkeeper Jeremy Pollard.
Oral Roberts then doubled their lead in the 22nd minute of the match, as Reed Berry scored a one-time finish off a through ball. Again, Guerineau provided the assist for the Golden Eagles.
Despite a long spell of possession for the Mavericks, the team remained unable to break down the Golden Eagle defense. Overall, the team only registered one shot on goal in the entire game.
Oral Roberts would finish the game off for good in the 87th minute, as Andrew Nunez scored a powerful header to put the Eagles up 3-0.
The game against Oral Roberts was the last game at Caniglia Field for Omaha’s seniors. Mavericks Seth Rinderknecht, Marcos Bautista, Pep Mateu, Billy Hoffmann, Ugo Tritz and Cole Nelson were honored after the game for their contributions to Omaha soccer.
While their final game at Caniglia may not have ended the way they would have liked, there is still work to do for the seniors, as well as the rest of the team. The Mavericks have one regular season game left, traveling to California to play San Diego State on Nov. 8. After that, Omaha will be heading to Denver to play in the Summit League tournament from Nov. 14-Nov. 16, where they will look to win the Summit League Championship for the second time in three years.
