CHICAGO, Ill. – Chicago State men's soccer made a statement in its Northeast Conference play debut, securing its first victory of the season with a 2-0 win over Stonehill on Sunday afternoon at Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep.
The Cougars (1-7-0, 1-0-0 NEC) capitalized on their opportunities, striking once in each half to earn the historic result.
Hilary Odhiambo opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, finishing off a well-worked sequence with assists from
Jayden Quezada and
Aaron Zhao. In the second half, team captain
Owen Santos doubled the lead in the 60th minute, slotting home his second goal of the season off a setup from
Karma Bhagentsang.
Goalkeeper
Johan Rodriguez Morales anchored the defensive effort, making seven saves to preserve the clean sheet despite Stonehill's (2-7-0, 0-1-0 NEC) 22-shot attack.
Head coach Norris Howze praised his team's resilience:
"The first win always feels great. They always say that the first win is the toughest, but from our 0-7 start and getting to here in conference, our biggest thing this week was to find points. Find points for conference and our guys dug deep and they got two goals and a shutout, so that is a great start to our conference. It's been a lot of work, but it's been a long time coming. With the win it tells the conference that we are not messing around. Everyone is looking at our record and now they see that we are 1-0 in conference, and everyone has their eyesight on us now, and that is what we want."
Captain and goal-scorer Owen Santos reflected on what the win meant for the team:
"The first win feels amazing, especially at home in front of our crowd and especially in conference. We need points to get into the playoffs, and we got the job done today. I'm proud of the team. It was amazing to see when the ball went in because we needed that second goal to really seal the game off. It's about the team, and I'm glad that we were able to work together to get the goal. I was just the guy putting it in the back of the net."
Chicago State now turns its attention to the next matchup as the Cougars look to build momentum as they face Michigan on Wednesday, October 1 at 6 pm in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
