Men's Soccer Hits the Road for First Time This Season on Saturday

Houston, Texas - The Centenary men's soccer team will play on the road for the first time this season as the Gents take on the St. Thomas Celts on Saturday afternoon in a Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference match set for 3 p.m. at the Houston Sports Park.

Live stats and video will be available for the match at the links below:

Stats: https://ustcelts.com/sports/msoc/2020-21/schedule

Video: https://livestream.com/coopersports3/events/8353067

The Gents (2-1-1, 2-0 SCAC) remained undefeated in conference play after a thrilling 4-2 victory over the Austin College 'Roos last Saturday night in an intense match at Mayo Field. Centenary scored three second-half goals to break a 1-1 halftime tie and put away the 'Roos in a hard-fought match which featured 30 total fouls, multiple yellow cards, and a pair of red cards. The Celts enter Saturday's match at 2-1-2 overall after blanking Schreiner, 3-0, at home on Wednesday. St. Thomas defeated the Gents, 2-1, last season at Mayo Field in the only meeting between the teams.

Centenary sophomore midfielder Jaden Harmon (Houston, Texas) received a red card just minutes into the match putting the Gents a man down for the remainder of the night and Centenary fell behind 1-0 minutes later. Sophomore midfielder Andres Bautista (Houston, Texas) collected a deflected ball close to the goal following a well-played free kick from sophomore defender Xavier Noyola-Ramirez (College Station, Texas) and rifled it past Austin's goalkeeper Connor Tullis for the tying goal, his second of the season. Bautista, who was named the SCAC Men's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week two weeks ago, scored the lone goal in the Gents' gritty 1-0 win over Dallas on March 7 to earn the honor for the first time and now has eight goals in his young career.

The first ended in a 1-1 tie with each team taking eight shots, setting up an exciting final 45 minutes of action. The Gents took the lead 15 minutes into the second half as freshman Jose luis Uriostegui (Houston, Texas) scored his first career goal. Noyola-Ramirez played a long ball to Bautista who then fed it to Uriostegui to his right who then found the net past 'Roos GK Aaron Hoffman for the 2-1 Centenary advantage.

Just over 10 minutes later, Austin College tied the game as Diego Rodriguez scored at the 72:55 mark to make it a 2-2 game. Three minutes later, sophomore midfielder Jaron Petreas (Denton, Texas) nailed a free kick over a wall of 'Roos defenders, curling the ball into the top left corner of the net for a 3-2 Centenary lead. Five minutes later Petreas struck again on another free kick to extend Centenary's lead to 4-2. The goals were the first for Petreas of the season and he now has three in his career. Petreas was appropriately named the SCAC Men's Soccer Offensive Player of the Week on Monday following his super performance.

Gents' junior goalkeeper Sami Borchalli (Lafayette, La.) played all 90 minutes and made two saves and now has 229 in his career to rank second all-time in program history in the division III (2011-present) era. Borchalli has 14 saves this season which is third-most in the league.

Centenary was not fazed following the early loss of Harmon after his red card, as the Maroon and White played two men down for nearly 40 minutes of its 2-2 double-overtime tie at home versus East Texas Baptist on Feb. 23 and fed off that experience and adversity on Saturday. The Gents have now won nine of their last 14 home games dating back to the beginning of last season and have opened 2-0 in conference play for the second-straight season. The four goals scored on Saturday night is also the most goals the Gents have scored in a game since scoring six in a 6-3 home win over Louisiana College on Oct. 21, 2019. 

Saturday's game shapes up to be an offensive battle as both the Gents and Celts are among the leaders in the conference in various offensive statistical categories. Centenary ranks first in shots while St. Thomas is second, the Celts are tied for second in points while the Gents rank third, and the teams are tied atop the conference leaderboard in goals with seven apiece. Both teams rank in the top three in assists as well.

Bautista ranks second in the league in points while Petreas is in a tie for third. The two are also tied for second with two others for most goals. Bautista is also tied for first in assists.

The Gents remain on the road after Saturday's match as they play at Colorado College (March 27) and Southwestern on April 3. Centenary faces Schreiner on April 10 for Senior Day in their home finale and then finish the regular season at Texas Lutheran on April 17. Centenary then will serve as host for the 2021 SCAC Men's Soccer Championship on April 23 and 25 at Mayo Field.

A link to the Gents' complete schedule can be found here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/msoc/2020-21/schedule.

Live stats and live video are available for all home matches.

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