No. 22 Men’s Soccer Rallies Twice, Halts Roadrunners 5-3 On Road

DENVER – NSCAA No. 22 Colorado School of Mines men's soccer twice rallied from a one-goal deficit in the first half Sunday and used a three-goal outburst in the closing 45:00 to topple Metro State 5-3 at Auraria Field in Denver.

Mines (9-3-1, 7-3 RMAC) fell behind 1-0 in the 21st minute and 2-1 in the 42nd, both off straight-on free kicks, but answered within six minutes on each occasion. Sophomore Joe Haines headed in a right wing corner attempt by junior Jared Herselman at 25:43, and with 1:04 remaining in the stanza, senior Baski Baker striped a short touch from classmate Tesho Akindele, evening the halftime score at 2-2 with his fifth of the season.

Despite a downturn in the weather conditions, Mines earned its first lead 12:20 into the second as Akindele fed sophomore Richard Garvey who put away his second from 14 yards to the right of the keeper.

Haines then connected on a header by way of another right wing corner from Herselman at 83:36 for the 4-2 advantage. His first career multi-goal outing upped his season total to four, third-highest on the team and most among Oredigger underclassmen.

The Roadrunners (8-3-3, 6-2-2 RMAC) stayed alive with a counter 23 seconds later; however Akindele sealed the decision with 41 seconds remaining, maneuvering a feed from Baker past the charging keeper and putting away his RMAC-leading 13th goal to the right net.

Tied for 19th in the Division II career record book in goals (70) and points (171), Akindele currently leads all active NCAA players in both categories. He and Herselman share the conference lead in assists with seven.

The men placed 10 of 19 shots on goal, led by senior Alex Gunberg with a game-high three looks and Akindele and Haines each with two.

Senior first-year keeper Colin Baker denied three of six shots on target to improve to 9-3-1.

With the regular season sweep of Metro State, the Orediggers remained squarely in the hunt for the conference title, regaining second place in the standings with 21 points, one back of Regis (8-2-1, 7-2-1 RMAC) in the top position.

Mines is back home on Wednesday, Oct. 23, hosting UC-Colorado Springs at 7 p.m. in its annual Senior Day.