🆚 Lindenwood
📆 Thursday, October 17, 2024
⏰ 7 pm
🏟️ Sorrels Field – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
HOUSTON ---- Houston Christian University returns to Sorrels Field on Thursday night to host Lindenwood University in the first of its final two home matches of the campaign. The Huskies sit alone in second place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings midway through the conference slate following a 2-0 road trip last week in the Midwest.
After a solid homestand that saw the Huskies go 3-1, HCU marched to the Midwest and took two wins by shutout to catapult to second in the OVC table. Both victories came via shutout as
Alex Aitken saved 11 shots over the two outings to lead the Huskies to a 2-0 win at Southern Indiana on Thursday and a 3-0 win at Eastern Illinois on Sunday.
HCU is now 6-5-2 overall and 4-1-0 in the OVC, and returns to Fondren Road to take on third place Lindenwood on Thursday evening. The Huskies defense has been sharp thus far, allowing just two goals in conference action while the offense has put 10 on the back of the net in the same span.
After Sunday's game, 11 different Huskies have scored a goal, as
Morgan Worsfold-Gregg and
Rio Pemberton put home tallies to lead the 3-0 victory over the Panthers. Worsfold-Gregg's score came just 2:04 into the contest, the second time in the last six matches that the Huskies have scored within three minutes, with
Ryan Okerayi's goal on the stroke of the first minute against Western Illinois being the other.
Sam Zeeman scored his second of the season in that contest, while
Ethan Giwa-McNeil doled out two assists. In addition to opening their HCU scoring accounts, Worsfold-Gregg and Pemberton also each added a helper on the day. The EIU win came on the heels of a strong effort in Evansville on Thursday where
D'Alessandro Herrera and Giwa-McNeil both scored, and Pemberton and
Ryan Okerayi aided the goals to lead the Huskies past USI.
Giwa-McNeil leads the squad with five goals which is tied for third in the OVC. He is second in shots and shots per game in the league and his three assists are second on the team and tied for eighth in the league.
Ryan Okerayi has four goals and four assists, sixth and tied for fifth in the OVC respectively, while Herrera chips in three goals and two assists. Zeeman and
Ricardo Garcia each have two goals while
Freddy Ferguson is tied with Okerayi at three assists.
Aitken continues his solid play in the pipes as he recorded two more shutouts last week to give him four on the season. That is good for second in the OVC and pushed him into fourth place all-time at HCU with eight, one shy of third place. He had 11 saves on the weekend to push him over the 200 career saves mark, just the third player in school history to do so. He is now just 17 saves shy of former keeper and later HCU head coach Benny Agosto for second in school history.
He also ranks third in the league in saves (44) and saves per game (4.00), is second in save percentage (.818) and first in goals against average (0.91).
The Huskies will take on Lindenwood for just the second time, with the first meeting coming in 2023 during the inaugural season of OVC soccer. The Lions opened the scoring at the 3:26 mark on a goal by Cooper Wilson, but the equalizer came 25 minutes later from
Kharrel Medza on an assist by Herrera, and the two teams then saw out the 1-1 draw.
LU is paced by senior forward Ethan Blake, who is first in the league in shots, points and assists. He has five goals and seven assists on the season, and is tied for fourth in the OVC in goals scored for the Lions, who come to Sorrels with a 7-5-1 overall mark and a 3-2-0 ledger in league play.
Enzo Gil minds the nets for Lindenwood and is tied with Aitken for fourth in shutouts and is fifth in both saves (38) and saves per game (3.17). Gil has started 12 of LU's 16, and has allowed just 17 goals to record a 6-5-1 mark.
Following the Thursday match, the Huskies will return to Fondren Road on Sunday to host league-leading and OVC defending champion SIU-Edwardsville in the culminating match of the 2024 home schedule. The match will kickoff at 1 pm as part of a "Senior Day" doubleheader with the HCU women, who take on Southeastern Louisiana in Southland action immediately following the men's action.
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