Oregon Tech Men Win First-Ever Home Match

8/31/2008 12:08:43 AM

Klamath Falls, Ore -- With a goal in each half, Oregon Tech thrilled a chilled crowd at Trevor Derrah Field Saturday to score a 2-0 victory in the first-ever home men’s soccer match in school history. OIT stopped Menlo in one of two matches in the men’s half of the D&S Harley-Davidson Oregon Tech Claasic at Steen Sports Park. Northwest Christian and Simpson played 20 minutes of overtime in the first men’s match and finished with a 1-1 tie in the tournament that will take Sunday off and resume at 1 p.m. Monday when Menlo meets Northwest Christian.

OIT will play Simpson at 3 p.m. Monday in the final men’s contest. Saturday, the Hustlin’ Owls had a chance to score their first ever goal within the first few minutes of their Menlo match, but missed two point-blank opportunities on a wind-swept pitch that created problems for both sides. Then, midway through the opening half, freshman Antonio Jaimes punched home a penalty kick, a historic goal, the first ever in OIT’s men’s soccer history. “I just had to make it,” Jaimes said. “I had to score. I had an opportunity and took advantage of it.” That was the last serious scoring chance in the half for either side, but OIT coach Bryan Mueller was unhappy with his team’s performance in the first 45 minutes of the contest. “We gave them too many chances,” Mueller said at halftime. “We made some adjustments and tried to take (Julian Baldaccini) out of their offensive flow. He’s the best player in the (California Pacific Athletic Conference).” It worked, but the Oaks still managed plenty of pressure on backup OIT goalkeeper Tommy Burden, who made three brilliant saves in the final 20 minutes of play. By then, OIT had taken a 2-0 lead.

Leo Keiser scored a textbook goal early in the second half, taking a slick feed from Dallas Bille and easily putting the ball in the net. Bille’s pass came after a nice feed from Lyland Villagomez. “Tommy did a good job,” Mueller said of Burden, who was in the net because Travis Bille was sidelined by illness, something that left the Owls shy two regulars. Devin Torrey sat the match out after having acquired a red card in the first contest of the season at Northwest University, which ended in a 0-0 tie. Villagomez, a Klamath Union grad, was one of several Klamath Basin players making their homefield debut with OIT in Saturday’s battle.“In the first half, we didn’t play that great,” Villagomez said. “We were not passing the ball and had too much dribbling, and I was a part of that. In the second half, (Logan Hurst) did a good job marking (Baldaccini), and we tried to play the ball on the ground.” Both teams had to. Any ball in the air would take weird flights in the stiff northerly winds that left players on both side befuddled.