Gents Open SCAC Play At Home Versus Ozarks

Shreveport - The Centenary men's soccer team will open Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play on Friday evening as the Gents face the University of the Ozarks Eagles in a match set for 7 p.m. at Atkins Field.

Live stats and live video are available for the match at the links below:

STATS: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/msoc/2024-25/boxscores/20240927_yx11.xml

VIDEO: https://www.ktalnews.com/gocentenary/watch-live-centenary-college-sports-2024-2025/

The Gents (4-2-1) are off to their best start to a season since beginning the 2019 season 6-2 and are coming off of an impressive 3-1 victory over the East Texas Baptist University Tigers in a non-conference match last Saturday night in Marshall, Texas.

The Eagles (3-3-2) fell 2-0 to Hendrix College at home on Monday in their most recent match and enter Friday's action at 1-0-1 on the road this season. Centenary and Ozarks, meeting for the first time as conference opponents, will face each other for the fourth time with the Eagles winning two of the previous three matches including an 8-0 victory last season in Clarksville, Ark.

The Gents, picked to finish in a tie for ninth place in the conference this season in the preseason poll, enter Friday's match sixth in the SCAC standings with the second-most wins behind Colorado College, Southwestern University, and Trinity University who each have five victories heading into league play. The Eagles were picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll.

Centenary has featured a strong offensive attack this season as the Maroon and White have scored 20 goals and tallied 17 assists and rank in the top five in the conference in assists (third), goals (third), points (third), and shots (fourth). The Gents average 2.86 goals per game, which ranks second in the SCAC, and have scored three or more goals in a match four times this season. Centenary has outscored its opponents 20-5 and has posted a pair of shutouts. Nine Gents have tallied at least one assist this season while 10 have scored at least one goal.

The Gents set a division III program era record for goals in a game with a 9-0 blowout victory over the Mississippi University for Women (MUW) Owls back on Sept. 13 at home as they raced out to a 5-0 lead at halftime and added four more goals in the second half over the Owls to coast to the win. Prior to Centenary's performance against MUW, the previous record for goals in a game was set in a 7-0 win over Hendrix College on Sept. 24, 2019. All but one of the Gents' nine goals was assisted as the eight assists sets a new D3-era record for assists in a match and the 26 points in the match is also a new D-3 era record for points in a match.

Senior MF Hunter Booth (Harrodsburg, Ky.), freshman MF Kevin Huskey Jr. (Dallas, Texas), senior F Ron Masti (Houston, Texas), and freshman F Nathan Uduojie (Houston, Texas) are four of the SCAC's goal scorers so far this season as the group has combined to find the net 13 times.

Uduojie's four goals lead the team and Booth, Huskey Jr., and Masti have each scored three. Uduojie recorded a hat trick in the MUW win as he scored the first two goals of the match for the Maroon and White in the ninth and 14^th minutes of the first half and added a third just 36 seconds after halftime for a 6-0 lead. Uduojie, who also tallied an assist in the match, becomes only the third Gent to score three goals in a game in the D3 era as he joins Wil Escobar in 2019 and Nick Hammond in 2017 in doing so.

Freshman MF Emiliano Mondragon (Dallas, Texas) is tied for the conference lead in assists with five and freshman MF Hayden Hughes (Dallas, Texas) is tied for sixth with three. Junior F Eoin Hamill (Belfast, Ireland) and senior D Christopher Tarr (Durban, South Africa) each have two assists this season.

Senior F Gabriel Aragon (Forney, Texas) has two goals and an assist this season and Mondragon, Tarr, Senior MF Brennan Amato (Denham Springs, La.), sophomore F Fernando Santos (Bridgeport, Texas), and sophomore F Carter Webb (Flower Mound, Texas) have each scored one goal. Junior MF Brandon Guevara (Henderson, Texas) had an assist in the MUW win and Mondragon had a pair of assists in that match as he joins seven others to tally two assists in a match in the D3 era. Mondragon is in a tie for 16^th place nationally in division III in assists.

Freshman GK Sebastian Lutin (Fort Worth, Texas) has started six matches as a rookie and has been on the conference's top keepers as he leads the SCAC in saves (27), is second in save percentage (.844), and has one shutout. He is seventh in the league in goals against average (GAA) at 0.83 and is tied for fourth in saves per game at 4.50. Lutin recorded a season-best eight saves in Centenary's 1-0 loss at UT-Dallas on Sept. 19 and has made four or more saves in a match four times this season.

LAST TIME OUT:

The Gents scored a pair of goals late in the second half to break a 1-1 tie with ETBU on their way to a 3-1 victory over the Tigers. The Gents and Tigers were meeting for the ninth time and Centenary now leads the all-time series 4-2-3.

Santos broke the tie with a game-winning goal which is the first of the season and second of his young career. Santos found the net in the 72nd minute after ETBU had tied it roughly 22 minutes earlier.

Masti and Uduojie also scored goals for the Gents and Lutin went the distance and recorded five saves. Masti gave the Gents a 1-0 lead with a goal in the 32^nd minute, his third goal of the season, with the assist credited to sophomore MF Jacob Ramsey (Baton Rouge, La.). The assist was the first of Ramsey's career.

A Glance at the Eagles:

Ozarks is led by head coach Aaron Brueckner.

The Eagles do not feature any players from the state of Louisiana.

Ozarks officially joined the SCAC on July 1, 2024 after accepting membership back on May 15, 2023. The Eagles joined alongside Concordia University (TX) and McMurry University.

The Eagles have scored 12 goals this season, while also allowing 12, and have tallied five assists.

Ten Eagles have scored at least one goal and three have tallied at least one assist.

Freshman MF Giovanni Casias is the reigning SCAC Offensive Player of the Week after he scored goals in consecutive wins against Lyon College and Central Baptist College on Sept. 17 and 21 respectively.

See the complete Gents' schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/msoc/2024-25/schedule  

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