Rio men rout Ohio Christian

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The gameplan for Ohio Christian University was to sit back in its end of the field and force the University of Rio Grande's potent offense attack to work its way through 11 defenders.
     As things turned out, the Trailblazers' defensive strategy made very little difference.
     Altan Sayar scored four goals and Tommy Munoz Salazar added two scores of his own as the RedStorm rolled to a 7-0 victory, Saturday night, in River States Conference men's soccer play at Evan E. Davis Field.
     Rio Grande, ranked No. 9 in the latest NAIA Coaches' Top 25 poll, ran its overall record to 7-1-1 and its conference mark to 4-0 with the win.
     Ohio Christian, which is in its final season as a member of the NAIA and the RSC before returning to the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), fell to 0-9-1 overall and 0-3-1 in league play as a result of the loss.
     The Trailblazers managed just two shots in the loss, while the host RedStorm peppered away with 37 shots overall and 15 shots on frame.
     Rio also had a whopping 22 corner kick opportunities in the match, tallying 11 such tries in each half.
     Senior Joe McInnes (Airdrie, Scotland) scored what proved to be the only goal the RedStorm would need off of a penalty kick just over eight minutes into the contest.
     Sayar, a sophomore from Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, netted the next four markers for Rio.
     The first two scores by Sayar came just 18 seconds apart inside the final two minutes of the first half to give the hosts a 3-0 lead at the intermission. Senior Benjamin Cam Orellana (Santiago, Chile) had an assist on the first goal.
     Sayar scored twice more in a span of just over two minutes, extending the lead to 5-0 with 16:17 left to play. Sophomore Theo Silva (Sao Paulo, Brazil) assisted on the first of two second half scores.
     Munoz Salazar, a freshman from San Jose, Costa Rica, had the final two scores of the night on unassisted markers with 14:13 and 2:10 remaining.
     Graduate senior goal keeper Matheus de Campos (Brasilia, Brazil) had a pair of saves en route to a clean sheet effort for the RedStorm.
     Madior Mbaye went the distance in net for the Trailblazers and was credited with eight saves.
     Rio Grande returns to action and resumes conference play with a trip to St. Mary-of-the-Woods College next Thursday.
     Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.