East Peoria, Ill. - It was another hot, but also exciting afternoon for coach Gabe Carreno and the 16th-ranked ICC men's soccer team (2-0-0). The Cougars were riding positive vibes into their home opener against athletics newcomer Western Iowa Tech on Thursday afternoon, having defeated rival Heartland 3-1 on the road. There were certainly plenty of positives to carry from that win, and they were carried over. After ICC completed seven shutouts in the 2022 fall season, they achieved their first one against the Comets by a 4-0 final score. 

The Cougars were able to get off to a fairly quick start, when Christopher Slack netted his first career collegiate goal at the 10:00 mark to go up 1-0 (assist Jan Buchcik). In fact, it didn't take Bertram Jensen too much longer to join in on the fun, netting his first career goal as well, coming at the 22:30 mark (assist Ali Akram). 

From there, however, it was more of a possession battle, with both keepers holding strong. That 2-0 lead for ICC would hold after 45 minutes. 

First career goals seemed to be a theme of the day, as freshmen Sebastian Stanojevic scored at 64:39 to give the Cougars a typically comfortable 3-0 lead (assist Tycho Van Barneveld), circling back to Coach Carreno's point of emphasis after Heartland on not being satisfied with a scoring margin at any point. 

The game did feature the season's first red card, with the Comets booked at the 79:00 mark. 

Just around that mark, Coach Carreno was able to sub keepers as well, bringing in Sebastian Naranjo for Tomas Fontes, who guarded the goal for 70 minutes, saving two shots on goal for ICC.

With time winding down, just four minutes left to be exact, Buchcik went from the assist side of the scoring column to scoring his own goal and set the aforementioned 4-0 final score and a Cougar winner. Akram assisted for the second time on the Buchcik goal.

HE SAID IT - QUOTE FROM COACH GABE CARRENO
"The team played very well, considering the tremendous heat index. We are a very deep team. We have players that can make a difference right from the start, and also coming off the bench. We had all our available players get minutes and that made all the difference."

SCORING RUNDOWN
10:00 | H1 | Christopher Slack (assist Jan Buchcik)
22:30 | H1 | Bertram Jensen (assist Ali Akram)
64:39 | H2 | Sebastian Stanojevic (assist Tycho Van Barneveld)
86:00 | H2 | Jan Buchcik (assist Ali Akram)

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
MWAC Conference Opener
@ Lincoln Trail Statesmen (2-0-0)
Statesmen Park - Robinson, Ill.
1:00 PM Kickoff
*No Live Stream*