Columbia College goalkeepers Steve Williams and Ignacio Recondo have been quite stingy lately.
The Cougars’ 5-0 win Friday night against William Woods at Marvin Owens Stadium was the Cougars’ third straight shutout. Williams and Recondo combined for six saves in the American Midwest Conference contest.
The Cougars improved to 6-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference while William Woods fell to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the AMC.
“It’s the whole team that gets the shutout,” Recondo said. “I did my job and so did (Williams).”
Despite muddy field conditions and several patches of standing water, Columbia College scored four goals in the first half.
“(William Woods) had a lot of English players that were hungry to play in this weather,” Cougars coach John Klein said. “The standing water in the corners of the field was a concern. Our crossing from the outside is a strength of (our) game.”
The Cougars’ Juan Pablo Irrera scored on a rebound of a Chris White shot that deflected off goalkeeper Michael Fischer’s hands. Irrera sent the ball into the right side of the net in the eighth minute.
One minute later, Ivan Radenkovic headed in a corner kick from Irrera.
Stephen McMullen scored the Cougars’ third goal of the game and his third collegiate goal off a pass from Ben Boehner in 37th minute. McMullen took six of the Cougars’ 13 shots on goal.
Boehner finished the first half scoring. Stephen Reineke and Juan Pagoda assisted on his goal in the 44th minute.
Despite the deficit, the Owls didn’t shut down in the second half.
“I was a little disappointed that we only scored one goal in the second half,” Klein said. “If we are able to score four in the first then we should be able to do the same in the second. You can’t be too disappointed, though. A shutout in conference play is very important, eight goals aren’t.”
Sasha McMillin scored on a breakaway five minutes after entering the game in the 82nd minute. Gustavo Lopez-Cesarego and Mark Wilcox assisted.
Klein said the win wasn’tonly about the ability of the offense to score but also the contribution of sound group defense.
“The key to a lot of our control was the defensive midfield of (Matt) Mueller, White and McMullen.” Klein said. “We did our job tonight.”