Scorpions topple Northwood, 4-1, to stay in first place

CEDAR HILL — The UTB-TSC men’s soccer team maintained its hold on first place in the Red River Athletic Conference with a 4-1 victory over Northwood University on Friday.

The Scorpions (7-2-1, 4-0), winners of five straight, will now face their toughest conference challenger thus far against Texas Wesleyan University at 7:30 p.m. today.

TWU is 5-3-1 and is the only other conference team without a conference loss at 1-0.

“I was real happy with the way the team responded today,” Scorpion coach Dan Balaguero said. “Any road win is a good win.”

The Scorpions took a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute on a goal by Filiberto Cortinas from 18 yards out with an assist by Ricky Rodriguez. Northwood tied the score in the 28th minute and the game was even 1-1 at halftime.

Marco Malovic nailed a penalty kick in the 53rd minute to give UTB-TSC lead for good at 2-1. Goal-keeper Juan Gamboa saved a penalty kick in the 59th minute, one of six saves on the day, that prevented the Knights from tying the game.

Fernando Mendoza then iced the game with two goals in the 71st and 89th minutes, getting assists from Brian Hardie and Antonio Vernaschi, respectively.

The Scorpions outshot the Knights, 19-7. Balaguero did not let the team celebrate too much after the game.

“We have a very big game (today) against Texas Wesleyan,” Balaguero said. “It’s a huge game to see who will be in the driver’s seat in the conference.”

Women’s Soccer Drops 3-1 Decision to Northwood

CEDAR HILL — The UTB-TSC women’s soccer team dropped its first Red River Athletic Conference game in a 3-1 loss to Northwood University Friday.

It was one of two tough games for the Scorpions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the weekend, and the result of Friday’s game threw the RRAC standings into a turvy. The Scorpions dropped to 3-1 while Northwood is at 2-0. Texas Wesleyan University, the Scorpions’ opponent at 5:30 p.m. today in Fort Worth, is 1-0.

Overall, the Scorpions dropped to 7-4. Northwood is 4-4-1 and TWU is 4-4-2.

“We didn’t play well and execute our game,” Scorpion coach Nik Barjaktarevic said. “We’ll try to make up for it in our game tomorrow.”

It’s a critical game today against TWU because the Scorpions will have only two conference games re-maining at home Oct. 19 and 20.

In Friday’s’ game, Northwood scored first in the fifth minute before Lena Candia scored a goal with an assist by Vanessa Gallegos in the 44th minute.

The game remained tied at halftime, 1-1, before the Knights scored twice in the second half in the 46th minute and again in the 85th minute.

Volleyball Team Sloppy in 3-0 Win Over OLLU

SAN ANTONIO — It was not pretty, but the 22nd-ranked UTB-TSC volleyball team blanked Our Lady of the Lake University 30-22, 30-23, 30-26 on Friday.

OLLU, a independent member of the NAIA, is hopeful of gaining entry into the Red River Athletic Con-ference in 2008. It was the Scorpions’ second sweep of the Saints as they also defeated the Alamo City squad 30-13, 30-16, 30-11 on Sept. 4 in Brownsville.

UTB-TSC raised its record to 15-5 overall and is 2-0 in RRAC play. The Scorpions return to RRAC play in Austin today at Huston-Tillotson University (0-16, 0-2).

“We were sloppy,” Scorpions coach Marcus Young said. “We made 24 hitting errors, and that’s way too much. We had already beaten them once, and we didn’t play as well as we could have.”

Talita Milasauskas led the Scorpions with 11 kills, six digs and five blocks. Jenny Ashley added nine kills and four blocks while Katie Japp contributed six kills and eight digs.

Claudia Alarcon had four kills to go with 19 digs, and setter Daianarah Bracero provided 27 assists to go with four kills and five kills.

After the weekend matches, the Scorpions return home to face Texas A&M University-Kingsville at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Manuel Garza B. Gymnasium.