by Joe Azar
After a difficult trip to Texas, Colorado Mesa University Men’s soccer team took to the road again to face familiar foes to begin play in the RMAC Conference. Despite opening the weekend with a scoreless draw on Friday, it was their main man Roy Abergil again who was the catalyst for their first conference win of the season on Sunday.
In their first two conference games of 2016, CMU faced the teams who were picked by the RMAC to finish third and fourth in the conference respectively.
Up first was a trip to Denver to take on Metro State. The Mavs were the better team, finishing the game with seven shots on goal as opposed to the three shots on goal for the roadrunners.
Goalkeeper Briley Guarneri was able to stop all three of those shots, including a breakaway opportunity in the opening minutes. Unfortunately for the Mavs, Metro State’s senior goalkeeper Hayden Rus also had a fantastic performance in goal, stopping five shots in the second half and seven in total to finish the game in a scoreless draw after two overtime periods.
The Mavs then traveled to Colorado Springs to face rivals UCCS on Sunday. The Mountain Lions outshot CMU 16-9, but Guarneri was solid in net yet again, saving four shots en route to his third shutout of the season.
On the offensive end, the Mavs opened the scoring account when Andres Delgadilo converted a corner kick with a header. Then Roy Abergil bagged a brace, scoring off a deflection in the 60th minute and scoring once again nine minutes later for his sixth goal of the season.
CMU will take to the road once again this weekend, beginning with game against Westminster on Friday, Sept. 23.
