Iowa Wesleyan men stay unbeaten in conference

FULTON, Mo. - Last season, the Iowa Wesleyan men's soccer team made history by becoming the first team in school history to make the SLIAC tournament. One year later, they may be on the verge of reaching another milestone; the first IW team to host a postseason game.

After a 5-3 win over Westminster on Tuesday night, that might become reality very, very soon.

The Tigers stormed back in the final 20 minutes of the game on Tuesday night, climbing back from 3-2 down to win the game.

IW struck first, in the 17th minute, when Francisco Javier Saldana scored off an assist by Jeinner Farfan. Westminster's Justin Gerdiman scored just 25 seconds later, however, and it was 1-1 early.

In the 29th minute, Carlos Mateo Moreno broke the tie. He scored an unassisted goal to give IW the lead back, at 2-1, where it would stay until halftime.

Westminster punched right back with two early goals in the second half. Sam Hekcart scored in the 61st minute, and Matthew Schulte scored in the 66th, giving Westminster a 3-2 lead.

IW wasn't going to let the Blue Jays hand them their first SLIAC loss of the year. The Tigers tied the game on another unassisted goal by Moreno in the 73rd minute, and scored two goals in the final eight minutes to survive.

Xavier Lozada had the game-winner, scoring an unassisted goal in the 82nd minute. Creighton Chambers scored with just 1:04 showing on the clock to put up the exclamation point.

The Tigers were actually outshot by Westminster 13-11 in the game. Trevor Haasis saved four of the seven shots he faced to earn the win.

Mateo led the offense with four total shots and two shots on goal. Lozada had three total shots.

The Tigers are now 7-8-2 overall and 6-0-1 in conference play. The Tigers have two more games left in the season, a road contest at Greenville University (9-7, 5-2) tonight and (Thursday) and a home game against MacMurray (5-11, 3-5).

If the Tigers take care of business in their final two games, they'll be in position to clinch home-field advantage throughout the SLIAC tournament. Principia is currently sitting in second place, at 6-2, with 5-2 Greenville and 4-2-1 Spalding still within striking distance of the top spot.