Rio explodes late, throttles IU Columbus

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - What may have started slowly finished with a flourish.
     The University of Rio Grande scored four late goals in a span of just 5-1/2 minutes en route to a 6-0 win over Indiana University Columbus, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference men's soccer action at Evan E. Davis Field.
     Freshman Facundo Rossich (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and sophomore Hugo Ferreira (Paris, France) had two goals each, while junior Tommy Munoz Salazar (San Jose, Costa Rica) had a goal and two assists for the RedStorm, who improved to 5-3-3 overall and 3-0 in conference play with the win.
     The Crimson Pride slipped to 5-7-1 overall and 2-3 in the RSC with the loss.
     Rossich and Munoz Salazar teamed up for each of Rio's opening two scores - the first with 22:26 left in the first half and the second with 30:04 remaining in the game - before the late game surge blew things open.
     Munoz Salazar scored off of a touch from junior Lucas O'Donnell (Leeds, England) with 15:30 left to make it 3-0 and freshman Andre Louro (Lisbon, Portugal) netted a marker of his own via a feed from sophomore Estevao Goncalves (Sao Paulo, Brazil) just 3-1/2 minutes later.
     Ferreira scored the first of his goals with 10:55 remaining off of a dual assist from senior Harry Walsh (Letchworth Garden ity, England) and senior Marti Puigsegur Calvo (Barcelona, Spain), while his second score came just 61 seconds later off of another assist by O'Donnell.
     Rio Grande finished with a commanding 22-4 edge in shots overall, a 15-1 advantage in shots on goal and a 7-3 cushion in corner kick opportunities.
     The match also included 33 combined fouls - 18 on the RedStorm and 15 against the Crimson Pride - and five yellow card cautions, all of which were issued to IU Columbus.
     Freshman Samy Hamou (Paris, France) had one save in goal for Rio Grande.
     Jacob Kasard stopped nine shots in a losing cause for the Crimson Pride.
     Rio Grande returns to action on Thursday evening when it faces West Virginia University Tech in a key RSC contest at the Paul Cline YMCA Soccer Complex in Beckley, W.Va.
     Kickoff is set for 5 p.m.