No. 22-ranked Rocky men’s soccer utilized goals from three different Battlin' Bears and a key penalty kick save by Biruk Paulos-Negatu to secure a 3-1 victory over Eastern Oregon, marking their fifth consecutive win in conference play.
Rocky remains undefeated on the season, with the victory keeping the Battlin' Bears atop the CCC standings.
How it happened
Defender Tommaso Giuntini opened the scoring in the 28th minute, heading home his first collegiate goal off a corner kick from teammate Henry Chalkley to give the Battlin' Bears a 1-0 lead that held through halftime.
Luke Tooze continued his offensive hot streak just five minutes into the second half. Working his way downfield with help from Fynn Sweeting, Tooze muscled a shot into the back of the net to extend Rocky's lead to 2-0, marking his sixth goal in the past five games. The Mountaineers had a chance to slice the deficit in half shortly after earning a penalty kick, but goalkeeper Biruk Paulos-Negatu turned away the spot kick to preserve the two-goal cushion.
Following 20 minutes of scoreless action, Eastern Oregon earned a second penalty kick in the 75th minute, this time converting to bring the score to 2-1 with 15 minutes remaining. The Battlin' Bear defense locked down from there, limiting the Mountaineers to a single shot attempt over the final 15 minutes. In the final 10 seconds of the match, freshman Manny Mendez sealed the victory, collecting a clearance from fellow freshman Andrija Antunovic and slipping a low shot past the keeper to wrap up the 3-1 road win.
Notable statistics
Rocky outshot Eastern Oregon 17-10 overall, holding a slight 7-6 advantage in shots on goal. Six different Battlin' Bears recorded multiple shot attempts, led by Luke Tooze with three. In goal, Biruk Paulos-Negatu finished with four saves.
Forward Davyd Fedina led Eastern Oregon with four shot attempts, three of which were on target.
Scoring summary
Rocky men’s soccer (7-0-3, 5-0-1 CCC) wraps up its road trip with a matchup against College of Idaho on Saturday.
This content is sourced from
Rocky Mountain College
. It reflects the author's views and has not been edited by our newsroom. It may have been generated using AI assistance.
