Shreveport - The Centenary men's soccer team gave first-year head coach Kevin White his first-career victory with the Gents as the Maroon and White blanked the University of the Ozarks Eagles by a score of 2-0 in a non-conference match on Friday night at Mayo Field.
The Gents (01-1-1) defended their home turf once again, improving to 12-4-3 in their last 19 home matches. The Eagles dropped to 1-1 with Friday's loss. Centenary played arguably its best match so far in the young season and continued its stellar defensive play in the process. The Gents opened the season last Friday with a scoreless, double-overtime tie against Hendrix and then lost a hard-fought 1-0 decision to the Rhodes College Lynx on Sunday. Centenary has now allowed one goal or less in six-consecutive matches dating back to last season.
Centenary, playing without two key defensive starters in junior Xavier Noyola-Ramirez (College Station, Texas) and fellow junior Quentin Helm (Denton, Texas), took a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute as freshman MF Brennan Amato (Denham Springs, La.) scored his first-career goal. Sophomore D Michael Smith (Baton Rouge, La.) made a heads up play as he aggressively pursued a ball headed to the left side of the Gents' goal and when an Ozarks player was not able to completely control it, Smith wrestled the ball away from him and served it to Amato who powered it into the back of the net past Eagles' goalkeeper Logan Keller for the early lead.
The Gents took that 1-0 lead into halftime and then added a late goal to make it 2-0 as senior D Diego Hernandez (Carrollton, Texas) snuck the ball into the left corner of the net following a corner kick by fellow senior, MF Cole Schultz (Denham Springs, La.) who received the assist. Centenary senior GK Sami Borchalli (Lafayette, La.) played all 90 minutes and made six saves. Borchalli has gotten off to a superb start to his season as he played 200 total minutes last weekend versus Hendrix and Rhodes in the 2021 Hendrix Invitational, allowing just one goal and making five saves, as he was named to the All-Tournament team.
Borchalli, like his head coach, made history on Friday as he recorded his 11th-career shutout, which now gives him the most shutouts in the division III era (2011-present) in program history. He entered Friday's match second in the conference in goals against average (0.45) and is tied for seventh in saves (5) and lowered his GAA to 0.31 after Friday's win and now has 11 saves.
Junior MF Jaron Petreas (Denton, Texas) led the Gents with four shots and a pair of shots on goal. Amato, Smith, and sophomore Leo Wallaert (Lille, France) had two shots off the bench. The Eagles out-shot the Gents 17-13, including a 11-6 edge after halftime following seven shots to the Eagles six in the first 45 minutes. Centenary held an 8-3 edge in corner kicks and the game featured 27 fouls, 18 by the Eagles and nine for the Gents, and Ozarks received four yellow cards. The Eagles played a pair of keepers as Keller played the first half and took the loss, allowing one goal and making one save. Caleb Anderson played the second half and allowed a goal and made a pair of saves.
The Gents wrap up the weekend with another non-conference match versus the Huntingdon College Hawks on Sunday, Sept. 12 at 1 p.m.
See the complete Gents' schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/msoc/2021-22/schedule
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