OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma City men's soccer team opened conference play on its home pitch on Saturday night as the Stars netted a pair of second half goals to take down Southwestern Christian 2-1.

Oklahoma City 2, Southwestern Christian 1

Goals
'61 - Marco Alongi (8)
'67 - Bernardo Duarte (4)

How it Happened
The two schools opened up conference play with a competitive start to the contest as SCU got off one shot while Oklahoma City took two chances through the first 13 minutes. Southwestern Christian made the first big play of the match by stealing the ball away inside the box near the Eagles goal as Alex Sainz made one move and took the shot getting the ball past the diving hand of Stars goalie Alexis Bertrand to go up 1-0 in the 22nd minute. Before the first half ended, Oklahoma City suffered a tough blow by losing Jovanny Nsgona to a red card which forced OCU to play with 10 for the remainder of the game.

Down one in the second half, Oklahoma City finally broke through with its first goal in the 61st minute as Marco Alongi knocked down the perfect header to left corner of the net that tied things up 1-1. Less than 10 minutes later the Stars put themselves in front by way of the foot of Bernardo Duarte in the 67th minute of play. Southwestern Christian got off three more goals for the rest of the way two of which came on-goal but were denied by Bertrand. The OCU defense kept the Eagles without a shot for the final eight minutes as the clock hit zero giving Oklahoma City the 2-1 comeback win in the conference opener.

Game Notes

• Oklahoma City outshot Southwestern Christian 17-7 with nine shots on-goal for the Stars and six for SCU.
• The Stars goal leader Marco Alongi netted the game-tying goal to bring his season total to eight as the senior has scored in back-to-back games and four times in the last five contests.
• Bernardo Duarte netted the fifth game-winning goal of his career. Durate's goal was his fourth of the season coming within two of his career-high he set last season.  
• Goalkeeper Alexis Bertrand swatted away a season-high five saves. 
• Oklahoma City won its third straight conference-opener after beating Texas Wesleyan 2-0 in 2022 and most recently in 2023 against Oklahoma Panhandle State winning 4-0.
• OCU was able to snap a seven-game losing streak to Southwestern Christian after not having defeated the Eagles since 2016. 
• SCU holds a 7-4-2 all-time record over Oklahoma City dating back to 2013.

Up Next
The Stars will go on the road for the first time since the month of August as Oklahoma City will take on Texas Wesleyan on Tuesday, Oct. 1 in Fort Worth, Texas.

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