COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV men's soccer team pushed its unbeaten streak to seven matches with a fifth straight shutout in a 3-0 win over Air Force in WAC play at Cadet Soccer Stadium.
This marked the first time the Rebels (5-6-5, 2-1-5) have recorded an unbeaten of at least seven matches with five consecutive clean sheets since 1985. With the result against the Falcons (1-13-1, 1-6-0), UNLV picked up three points in the WAC standings as part of a four-point weekend in their chase of a conference tournament berth.
The Scarlet & Gray scored all three of its goals in the second half as senior
Nico Lopez finished with a brace and received another score from senior captain
Louis Hiepen. Lopez finished the game with a team-leading seven goals on the season, being assisted by junior
Kai Merrill in the 46th-minute and freshman
Sawyer Crisostomo in the 90th, while Hiepen's second score of the year came off a corner kick assist by junior
Jonah Craig in the 57th minute.
As a team, UNLV's backline kept the Air Force attack in check, allowing only two shots on goal throughout the match. Those pair of targets resulted in two saves by sophomore goalkeeper
Hugo Lemos.
QUOTABLE: "This was a great team performance and credit to this group for going on the road and keeping another clean sheet against some of our country's finest men. It was great finding the back of the net and this team keeps improving each week which is one of the keys to winning championships. We still have work to do and I love the hunger in the team, and this will help us as we keep moving forward."
-UNLV Head Coach BJ Craig
UP NEXT: UNLV will close out the regular season next Sunday, November 3, in a 12:30 p.m. contest at Utah Tech.