TMU Men's Soccer picked up a vital win by beating second-placed Arizona Christian University, 2-1, on Saturday on Reese Field in Golden State Athletic Conference play.
The first half was a battle, with both teams playing hard defensively and not allowing a goal until the final five minutes of the first half, when ACU scored to take a 1-0 lead going into halftime.
"We had a solid first half with things going back and forth for each team," Master's Head Coach Jim Rickard said. "It was disappointing to go into halftime a goal down."
TMU came out strong to start out the second half, scoring a goal three minutes after the break. Corny Miller tallied his fourth goal of the season, with Giorgio Martino providing the assist.
"After our senior ceremony, I challenged everyone to work together more offensively," Rickard said. "The tying goal was a great sequence involving five players that ended with a goal by Corny. Giorgio and Prince Chingancheke were instrumental in putting the ACU defense on their heels several times."
The Mustangs clearly listened to Rickard's halftime speech, with Master's scoring what proved to be the game-winner just eight minutes later. Theo Kudlo lofted his corner kick to the back post for Aidan Rohde to leap and snap a header into the back of the net.
"The game-winner was off a corner kick, but we got the corner from combination play that resulted in the corner," Rickard said. "Good team combination play, along with a great team defense, produced a critical win for us today."
The win proved to be a fitting ending to the final home regular season match of the season for Master's.
"Aidan came up with a great game-winner and all four seniors contributed to the victory," Rickard said.
With the win, TMU improves to 6-7-1 overall and 3-3 in the GSAC. TMU will now travel to northern California for two matches to close out the regular season, beginning with Thursday's match in Rocklin against William Jessup University at 3:30 p.m.
