JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College men's soccer team struggled to pull away from Lincoln Christian University for more than 50 minutes on Saturday afternoon, but goals scored about 15 seconds apart just before the hour mark turned a 2-2 tie into a 4-2 lead. After that, the blowout was on and the Blueboys added four more in an 8-2 defeat of the Red Lions. With non-conference play almost over for the season, IC moves back to .500 at 4-4-2.
Lincoln Christian refused to go away for a long stretch of the match. Though
Bryan Hamilton opened the scoring in the 18th minute with an assist to
Spencer Bloome, the Red Lions answered back with an equalizer off of a corner in the 27th minute. Less than 90 seconds later,
Caleb Saldana fought off the LCU defense for his first goal of the season. That 2-1 lead would hold up into halftime.
Anyone expecting Lincoln Christian to go away had a surprise awaiting them early in the second half when Keaton Doty went upper 90 to knot the score at 2-2 in the 48th minute. LCU continued to resist the sustained Illinois College pressure until the 57th minute. That's when Bloome and
Brady O'Connell scored twice within 15 seconds of each other to suddenly push the IC lead to 4-2.
For all intents and purposes, that was the end of the line for the Red Lions. Illinois College added another tally on an own goal in the 61st minute when a shot from
Bohlt Hamrick took a hard deflection and made Pedro Barbosa lean the wrong way. Two minutes after that,
Thomas Saitta curled in a corner kick for a 6-2 lead. Late in the match,
Jared Haynes scored on a long-range effort in the 86th minute and
Christian Lopez closed the scoring with a rebound goal in the 88th minute.
Illinois College goes on the road on Sept. 24 for its final non-conference matchup of the season, taking on Greenville University at 7 p.m.
