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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Brantley Bice Adams
Maureen Pasley, FLC Athletics
FLC junior Brantley Bice scored his first goal of the season in Friday's 1-0 win over Colorado Christian (File Photo)
1
Winner Fort Lewis FLC (4-0-3, 1-0-1)
0
Colo. Christian CCU (0-6-0, 0-3-0)
Winner
Fort Lewis FLC
(4-0-3, 1-0-1)
1
Final
0
Colo. Christian CCU
(0-6-0, 0-3-0)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLC 1 0 1
Colo. Christian CCU 0 0 0

Game Recap: Men's Soccer | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Skyhawks notch fourth shutout of the season with 1-0 road win over Colorado Christian

LAKEWOOD, Colorado — The undefeated Fort Lewis College men's soccer team kept on rolling Friday afternoon out in Lakewood, picking up win No. 4 of the young season with a 1-0 road victory over Colorado Christian University.

With the win over the Cougars (0-6 overall, 0-3 RMAC), Fort Lewis (4-0-3 overall, 2-0-1 RMAC) moved into sole possession of first place in the RMAC standings. Colorado School of Mines, currently in second place three points back of FLC, plays Adams State at 7:30 p.m. Friday evening.

"It's always good to be able to get three points on the road and I thought overall our general play was a lot stronger than it has been," said Fort Lewis head coach, David Oberholtzer. "We were in control of the game pretty much start to finish. We're still just struggling to make things a little more comfortable on ourselves in terms of putting a few more goals away."

The Skyhawks broke the scoreless tie in the 15th minute as junior transfer Brantley Bice, the team-leader in assists this season with three, netted his first goal of 2019, finishing off a cross from senior defenseman Ty Lang.

"I'm really happy for Brantley because he's been close to a goal a couple times already this year and he's also done a nice job creating opportunities for other guys," Oberholtzer said. "It's good for him to finally put one away and hopefully that helps build his confidence and there will be a couple more soon to follow."

The Skyhawks, who have scored one goal in each of their last three games, appeared poised to break out offensively on Friday, but had three goals called back due to offsides and three more shots ring off the goalposts.
Fort Lewis finished with a 12-5 shots advantage on Friday and also won the corner kicks battle, 5-1.

"I'm looking forward to going back and watching the video of those offsides calls," Oberholtzer jested. "But if they indeed offside calls, then we're being just a little too aggressive and impatient with the timing of our final runs. We need to have a little bit more focus and concentration with those finals runs, and then just a little stroke of good fortunate. It's been really small margins that are keeping these games tight and us from putting 3-4 goals on the scoreboard."

While the Skyhawks' offense continues to iron out, the defense has been firing on all cylinders to begin 2019.

With Friday's victory, Fort Lewis has recorded back-to-back shutouts and a total of four shutouts through its first seven games. The Skyhawks also lead the RMAC in opponent goals against average at 0.71 and redshirt sophomore Peter Byrne paces all goalkeepers with a .875 save percentage in the early going.

Byrne stopped all three shots he faced on Friday while the FLC back line of Lang, fellow senior Marshall Metzger, freshman Milen Manchev and sophomore transfer Denis Celik continued their strong play in front of the net.

"Our offense hasn't been as high-powered as we'd have liked so far, but we're still confident that's going to happen," Oberholtzer said. "But anytime you can keep the other team off the scoresheet, you're going to give yourself a chance to win games. To start off the year with this many shutouts, and Peter doing a great job behind our back four, it has been great to see."

Oberholtzer added that one of the unsung heroes, defensively, for the Skyhawks has been freshman Ruben Neubauer, who has anchored the midfield defense for 647 minutes so far this season.

"Neubauer is another guy who I think gets overlooked a little bit, but does a ton of work and deserves a lot of recognition. He's been our defensive midfielder sitting in front of the back four," Oberholtzer said. "He does a lot of work that breaks up opposing attacks early on. That group of six guys has been really strong and a big reason why we're at where we are right now."

The first-place Skyhawks will now take aim at Metropolitan State University of Denver (3-3 overall, 1-1 RMAC) to wrap up their weekend road trip. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday in Denver.
 
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