Joliet, Ill. – Cardinal Stritch University Wolves men’s soccer player Adam Brown (Whalley, England) scored, what could only be described best in his own words, a delightfully delicious game-winning goal that propelled Stritch to a 3-2 win over the University of St. Francis Saints on Wednesday afternoon.
In the early goings of the match, the Wolves found themselves in an early hole courtesy of the Saints’ Victor Trujillo (Chicago, Ill.). Trujillo connected from about 15 feet in front of the net off a corner kick assist from Mike Healy (Smithport, Penn.) in the game's seventh minute.
Despite being down 1-0, Stritch came roaring back as David Perich (Perth, Australia) scored an unassisted goal in the 24th minute of play to tie the game at 1-1. About 12 minutes later, the Wolves struck again as senior Andy Collins (Burnley, England) would give Stritch the lead before the end of the half, after heading in a crossing pass off the foot of Perich.
With Stritch leading in the second half 2-1, the Saints would eventually bring the game back to even. 13 minutes into the second half, USF’s midfielder, Luis Escorza (Joliet, Ill.) scored off a pass from Damien Silva (Plainfield, Ill.), tying the game at 2-2.
With the game tied, the stage was set for Brown to score his first goal of the season. Slicing through the defense, Brown found himself about eight feet out from the net where he would send a ball, courtesy of Ben Allen (Whalley, England) into the lower right corner of the net, giving the Wolves the eventual win.
The Stritch offense was definitely alive in Wednesday’s game as the Wolves recorded 13 shots on goal compared to just 4 for USF. The Wolves also limited the Saints to just a single shot in the second half and that one attempt resulted in Escorza's game-tying goal.
With the win, Stritch improves to 11-5-1 overall and moves into second place in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) with a record of 6-3. The Saints now find themselves at 6-9-2 overall and at 3-5-1 in the conference. The Wolves will wrap up their regular season on Saturday afternoon as they’ll head to Chicago, Ill. to take on Illinois Tech. The starting time for Saturday’s matchup is slated for 2 p.m.