ASHLAND – If the Southern Oregon men's soccer team needed a reminder that circuit wins don't come as easily, it got one from Evergreen (Wash.) on the opening day of Cascade Conference play Friday afternoon at Raider Stadium.
The Raiders squandered an early two-goal lead by surrendering three straight, but trailed for less than a minute and got the game-winner from
Alan Gaytan in the 74th to take the 4-3 decision.
Despite giving up three goals at home for the first time since 2015, they improved their best-ever start to 5-0. Gaytan scored twice, giving him five goals in his last four games.
Zak Woolley was credited with the assist on his first goal in the 20th minute, and in the 58th he leveled the score at 3-3 by heading in an
Adrian Villegas free kick.
"Evergreen made today a very tough conference opener," SOU head coach
Davie Carmichael said. "We had to show resolve and character to earn the result. We had control early but got complacent and were punished for switching off. We learned a good lesson about ourselves and know now that when things get tough, we can roll our sleeves up and win ugly."
The Raiders are unbeaten in 24 of their last 25 home games. They'd turned in clean sheets in 20 of those. Dating back to 2019, they hadn't given up multiple goals in their previous 12 regular season games.
Junior Rivas got them going with a goal in the fifth minute, and Gaytan made it 2-0 in the 20th by rebounding a Woolley header that was created by
Joao de Santos' corner kick.
The Geoducks tied it by halftime. Joe DiCarlo found their first goal in the 37th minute, set up by a Lucas Alcala cross, and he and Maxton hauser assisted Brandon Clough for the equalizer three minutes later. Hauser then struck in the 57th after DiCarlo made a run down the right side and centered it to him.
The game was tied again 48 seconds later on Woolley's header. The game-winner, which Gaytan slotted into the bottom-left corner of the goal on the PK, was set up by
Joao de Santos' run that attracted a foul inside the box.
Gaytan is the second Raider ever to tally in four consecutive games;
Carlos Magana, now an assistant on Carmichael's staff, did it first in 2016, also scoring five in his stretch. During one stretch as a freshman in 2019, Gaytan found the net in five of six games.
The Raiders will be at home again at 1 p.m. Saturday to face Northwest (Wash.), which fell 2-1 in its CCC opener at Oregon Tech.
