ORU Men's Soccer Scores First Conference Win

Cody Lofgren scored his first two goals of the season as the Oral Roberts men's soccer team routed the Mastodons of Fort Wayne in Summit League action on Friday night, 5-1.

The five goals scored by the Golden Eagles matched their total through the first eight games of the season, and the most since Nov. 4, 2008 when they beat Newman, 5-2. The victory improves the Golden Eagles to 2-7 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

To get the scoring going for the Golden Eagles in their first conference road contest, Craig Rogers took a deflection following a Gerardo Salas free kick, capitalizing on the possession by putting the ball in net, giving the Golden Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Nearly five minutes later in the 17th minute, Lofgren recorded his first goal of the contest, as well as the season. Lofgren turned a mistake by the IPFW defense when trying to clear the ball into the goal, expanding the lead to 2-0.

Quickly, the Mastodons answered with their first goal of the match in the 19th minute. Kyle Ackerman placed the ball perfectly for Jose Rodriguez, who chipped the ball over Golden Eagle keeper Ryan Grashik's save attempt to cut the lead to one.

Despite outshooting the Mastodons throughout the first half, the home team entered the locker room with five shots on goal, two more than the Golden Eagles. In the second stanza, IPFW rattled off five more shots on goal, but Grashik and the Golden Eagles defense stepped up huge.

Grashik closed out the game with his first victory of the year, sending back six Mastodon shots.

Even though they added three goals in the second 45 minute period, the Golden Eagle offense actually slowed. Fortunately, they made the shots they did take count, scoring on three of their six second half shots.

In the 53rd minute, John David James beat the Mastodon goalkeeper and placed the ball in the right side of the net. Setting him up with the assist was Tom Adams, who added an insurance goal in the 59th minute as he and James switched roles.

It was Adams' second goal and first assist in 2012, while it was James' first for each stat category.

Lofgen's second goal of the contest came off a free kick in the 68th minute from just outside the box, beating the keeper to close the scoring, 5-0. The sophomore led the squad with six shots, three of which were on goal, while Salas and Johnny Chavez each finished with two on goal, taking three and four shots, respectively.

The Golden Eagles will remain in Indiana for a match on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. when they take the pitch against Evansville.