Crusaders hold off Texas Lutheran for 5th Straight Win

IRVING, Texas – The University of Dallas men's soccer team won its season-high fifth match in a row, as three goals in the first 31 minutes were enough to top Texas Lutheran University on Friday afternoon. The Crusaders surrendered a pair of goals in the second half, including one with a minute and a half remaining. Despite the close margin, Dallas held on to increase its conference-best record to 9-1-2 and maintain second place.

Andrew Ciancone (Houston, Texas) netted the first two goals for the first multiple on of the junior's career. He got the Crusaders on the board almost six minutes into play as Nat Kajiwara (Southlake, Texas) found Ciancone from the right side middle of the field. Ciancone was able to dribble near the box and punched his shot into the back of the net.

At the 19:33 minute mark, Ciancone came up with another nice goal. This time Hunter Haugland (Bixby, Okla.) crossed a pass from the right that set up the scoring result. It was Haugland's team-leading sixth assist on the year. He managed to tie Kajiwara in total goals this fall with the final score UD had in the match. The trio of points for Haugland improve the team leader in points to a career-high 22. Chima Ogueri (Garland, Texas) did earn the assist on that sequence.

The Crusaders held a 9-3 edge in shots by halftime, but the guests responded with a 13-6 advantage in the next stanza while putting pressure on the defense. Brice Collier scored in the 60^th minute to get the Bulldogs on the board.

That was the first goal Dallas had allowed in three games and around 350 minutes.

David Ching, who assisted the first score, connected on a long strike that snuck into the upper part of the goal to cut the deficit to 3-2 with under 90 seconds remaining. That was the final shot on either side until the final horn.

UD had five saves total in the match, with all of them occurring in the second half. Sean Carlin (Puyallup, Wash.) notched four of them in 90 minutes.

The last time the Crusaders won five straight matches was in 2014 from October 3^rd-17^th against all Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) opponents. This current streak features four. Dallas now sits 11-2-2 overall. The last team to win at least that amount was the 2008 squad (16-4-1) that eventually won the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) and qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament. 

SOCIAL MEDIA

.@UDsoccer Final: #UDCrusaders keep rolling! Hold off Bulldogs for 5th straight win! (Photo by @mazur_anthony) #GoUD #UDMS #SCACmsoc #d3soc pic.twitter.com/cPRSnvXbCM

— UDallas Athletics (@UDallasSports) October 21, 2017

UP NEXT

Dallas returns to Crusader Field for the third match of a four-game home stand Sunday versus Southwestern University. Kickoff is slated for around 2 p.m.