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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Gabriel Legendre 3.21
Peyton Rutkowski
FLC freshman Gabriel Legendre scored a goal and added an assist in Sunday's win over CCU (File Photo)
2
Winner Fort Lewis FLC (2-0-0, 1-0-0)
1
Colo. Christian CCU (4-2-0, 0-1-0)
Winner
Fort Lewis FLC
(2-0-0, 1-0-0)
2
Final
1
Colo. Christian CCU
(4-2-0, 0-1-0)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLC 0 2 2
Colo. Christian CCU 0 1 1

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

FLC men's soccer moves to 2-0 with road win over CCU

LAKEWOOD, Colorado — The Fort Lewis College men's soccer team tied the bow on a 2-0 weekend Sunday, grinding out a 2-1 win against Colorado Christian University to open up RMAC play.

Fort Lewis (2-0 overall, 1-0 RMAC) began the weekend with a 1-0 road win against Westminster College on Friday before traveling to Lakewood on Sunday for a matchup with the Cougars (4-2 overall, 0-1 RMAC).

The Skyhawks dominated time of possession and produced an early season-high 20 shot attempts, eight on goal, compared to just nine shots (four on goal) for CCU.

"It was a great weekend for us with two tough games. The guys battled the whole time and we're very happy," said FLC head men's soccer coach, David Oberholtzer. "Something we talked about coming into the season was wanting to be more aggressive in general and we're starting to take changes and create more opportunities for ourselves."

Fort Lewis broke through with its applied pressure in the 50th minute as true freshman Gabriel Legendre, a two-time New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year during his prep career, finished off a gorgeous pass from junior transfer Andres Hernandez for the first goal of his young collegiate career.

"We're hoping that's just one of many for Gabe. He's been close a couple of times and it was great to see him put one away (Sunday) in a big game," Oberholtzer said. "It was a good build up. That first 15-20 minutes of the second half we were all over CCU. Andres got forward and delivered a really good ball into the box and it was a well-timed run and good finish from Gabe."

CCU drew even with the Skyhawks at the 73:02 mark via a penalty kick goal, but the tie would be short-lived as Legendre notched the first assist of his career, finding redshirt junior Loic Jean-Baptiste on a run just nine minutes later.

The goal was the first of the season for Jean-Baptiste, who was voted a First Team All-RMAC selection last season as the Frenchman led all Skyhawks with eight goals in 2019.

"It was a good run and really composed finish from Loic," Oberholtzer said. "And going back to Gabe with the assist, we had talked as a team Friday that we had a number of opportunities to play that final pass that would open things up and didn't execute it very well. We talked about having a little extra focus and it was great to see the play succeed as it did."

Fort Lewis would be able to ride the go-ahead goal from Jean-Baptiste to the finish line as the FLC defense and redshirt junior goalkeeper Peter Byrne put the clamps on over the final nine minutes.

Bryne finished with two saves in the win, while FLC as a team limited CCU to just four shots on goal for the game. Through two goals, the Skyhawks have help opponents to just seven shots on goal behind a back-row wall of sophomore Milen Manchev, sophomore Danny Coronado, junior transfer Moises Durazo and Hernandez.

"Our back four in general has been really strong, challenging for everything in the air and winning their duels. They've been really stingy in the back," Oberholtzer said. "On top of that, I think the rest of our group has been very competitive on any second balls that are 50-50, we've been trying to tilt that in our favor by doing the extra work. It certainly paid off (Sunday)."

The Skyhawks will look to keep the win streak rolling when it hosts Colorado State University Pueblo on Sunday, March 28. Kick-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

FLC finished 5-1-1 overall at Dirks Field in the fall of 2019 and is determined to keep up that home dominance over a mini-two game home stand against the ThunderWolves and Colorado School of Mines (April 1).

"We've been wanting to make Dirks Field a fortress for us again and I think when we scrimmaged Adams a couple weeks ago at home that was our first real opportunity to play on Dirks in a really long time," Oberholtzer said. "We showed really well then and now with points on the line, and us trying to advance to the conference tournament, these next two home games will be crucial games against good teams."
 
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