BILLINGS, Mont. – The Southern Oregon men's soccer team had gone 24 straight Cascade Conference games without giving up multiple goals before Sunday. Then, Rocky Mountain's Sky Swenson did it himself.
In the 87th minute, Swenson took a ball off a Raider defender and went in to score his second of the day to give the Bears a 2-1 Cascade Conference win at Wendy's Field. It kept the Bears (6-3 overall, 5-1 CCC) in second place in the standings and ended a three-game winning streak for the Raiders (5-5, 3-2).
SOU is one of four teams with two CCC losses behind Corban (6-0) and RMC going into home games Friday against College of Idaho and Saturday against Eastern Oregon.
The Raiders got an equalizer out of
Alan Gaytan in the 74th minute, marking the freshman's fourth goal of the season – all registered in the last three games.
Swenson, a junior from Germany, initially put RMC up in the 25th minute. Both of his goals were unassisted, and his season total ballooned to six.
Both teams were limited in their attacks, with the Bears logging 10 shots to SOU's seven. Raider keeper
Wyatt Zabinski collected three saves and RMC's Kristofer Wennin needed just two.
In their five losses, the Raiders have allowed four game-winning goals in the 70th minute or later.
They'd been unbeaten against the Bears in the teams' previous three meetings.