The Ashland University men’s soccer team has extended its streak without losing a contest to five straight games, winning four and drawing in one.

In the team’s most recent contest, the Eagles went up against the Thomas More Saints for the first time in program history, taking them down in dominating fashion, 2-0. With the Eagles receiving impressive play from forwards Pedro Faria and Vander Rocha, the Eagles were able to waltz out of Ferguson Field with a comfortable win.

In the first half of play, both teams battled back and forth as they looked to open the contest up with the first score of the game.

However, that would not happen as the two sides were showcasing elite defending, allowing very little inside the goalkeeper’s box, forcing far and inaccurate shots. The two teams would take a total of 15 shots in the first half, with nine coming from the Eagles and six from the Saints.

Through the first 20 minutes, the game saw disciplined play with a very little amount of fouls being called.

As the first half came to a close, tensions started to rise as the physicality and aggression began ramping up. To finish the first half, the referee would blow his whistle calling 12 fouls with seven of them going against the Saints and five for the Eagles.

Heading into halftime, both goalkeepers were on their A-game as Eagle keeper Ty Bowden recorded four saves and Saint keeper Emilio Benmergui Rodriguez made five saves.

With back-and-forth play being the storyline of the first half, it looked as though the next 45 minutes would showcase a similar storyline, with a chance of a draw being found.

Unfortunately for the Saints, that would not be the case.

Coming straight out of halftime, the Eagles put tremendous pressure on the Saint defense as Rocha attempted to put the Eagles on the scoreboard first, but just barely mistimed his shot in the 46th minute.

The Eagles came out swinging and would eventually find the opening goal.

After trying to open the contest up through the first few offensive attacks, the Eagles would find a goal in the 58th minute from Faria who found his sixth goal of the 2023-24 campaign. Faria received a clean through ball from counterpart Rodri Fernandez, before slicing the ball past Benmergui Rodriguez for the goal.

The Eagles thrusted themselves into the lead with a 1-0 score line.

When the goal was scored, Saint defender Flo Meyer was yellow carded for a verbal altercation with the head referee, setting the scene for the remainder of the outing.

The Saints would go on to receive two more yellow cards and a red card from verbal altercations with the head referee and line judge before the contest would come to a close, ultimately hindering the teams ability to keep their heads level.

In the 64th minute, the Eagles would put the game to bed with a goal from Rocha who placed the ball into the bottom left corner of the net from outside the 18-yard box.

The Eagles, led by defensive consistencies and offensive capitalizations, pushed the team’s win streak to four. Bowden finished the contest with five saves and a clean sheet, his first of the season.

They next look to take on the Tiffin Dragons at home on Wednesday, Oct. 11, with kickoff set for 6:30 P.M. at Ferguson Field.