RIO GRANDE, Ohio — The budding rivalry on the men’s soccer pitch between the University of Rio Grande and West Virginia University-Tech added another interesting chapter on Saturday night.
Ruben Martin Macias scored just over a minute into the second overtime period to give the visiting Golden Bears a 4-3 win over the RedStorm in River States Conference play at Evan E. Davis Field.
Rio Grande slipped to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in league play with the loss.
WVU-Tech was playing its season opener.
Martin Macias’ game-winner came off a crossing pass from the right wing by Eduardo Gutierrez with 8:34 remaining in the second extra session.
Rio Grande forced overtime in dramatic fashion when junior Nicolas Cam Orellana (Santiago, Chile) scored on a penalty kick with 31 seconds left in regulation.
Unfortunately, the goal was a costly one as Orellana appeared to suffer a knee injury on the kick and was helped from the pitch. He did not return for the overtime periods.
Orellana’s goal was his second of the contest. His first – off an assist from junior Charlie Chechlacz (Liecestershire, England) – gave the RedStorm a 1-0 lead with 3:00 in the first half, but the Golden Bears tied the game on a PK of their own by Pablo Muniz Rocandio just over four minutes into the second half.
Tech grabbed its first lead of the game just over 2-1/2 minutes later when Luis Alejandro James blistered a shot from 25 yards out past Rio freshman goal keeper Kieran Hodges (Hewish, England), but Rio knotted the game at 2-2 when senior Ewan McLauchlan (Aroch, Scotland) scored off an assist by Orellana with 23:22 remaining.
WVU regained the advantage with 8:40 remaining when Andrija Milenkovic scored off a free kick from 40 yards out by Muniz Rocandio, setting up the dramatic finish.
Rio Grande finished with a 29-13 advantage in shots overall and a 9-7 edge in shots on frame.
Hodges had three saves in a losing cause for the RedStorm.
Guillermo Crespo stopped six shots in net for WBU Tech.
The contest was a physical one from the outset with a combined 29 common fouls whistled between the two teams, as well as a whopping 15 yellow card cautions being issued and resulting in three red card disqualifications.
Rio Grande lost sophomore Diego Montenegro (Santiago, Chile) to a second yellow card/red card with 14:43 left in regulation and lost sophomore Rodrigo Basso (Santiago, Chile) to the same scenario four minutes later. Tech’s Nathan Williams was disqualified for a second yellow card with 31 seconds left in regulation.
Rio Grande will look to rebound when it returns to action on Thursday at Ohio Christian University.
Kickoff is set for 4:30 p.m. in Circleville.
Randy Payton is the Sports Information Director at the University of Rio Grande.
