Sept. 26, 2014 Box Score Box Score 
ROCHESTER, Mich. - The UIC men's soccer team (4-2-2, 0-0-1) played 110 minutes before coming to a 1-1 (2OT) draw with Oakland (0-5-1, 0-0-1) on Friday night at the OU Soccer Field to open the Horizon League season. Freshman
Jose Fuentes scored for the Flames in the 27th minute on a cross from senior
Jesus Torres to garner his second goal of the season.
"Opening Horizon League play is always tough, especially on the road against a very talented attacking team such as Oakland, who were just short with four road losses against top 25 teams and are tough at home," head coach Sean Phillips said.
"We were going to need to have a collective mentality better than our game against DePaul. We started flat and could have paid with the exception of Andrew's standard outstanding play. Later in the first half, we found the mentality, scored a goal and started to carry some of the play through the end of the half. Unfortunately, we were not consistent enough with the mentality and did not finish the opportunities we had to win the game and allowed them chances of their own."
UIC was held without a shot until Fuentes charged the net and headed in the Flames' lone goal of the game on Torres' cross. UIC got off three additional shots before the first half came to a close, but all attempts were blocked.
The Golden Grizzlies took six shots in the first 45 minutes and caused sophomore goalkeeper
Andrew Putna to make four quality saves, including a stoppage on a one-on-one opportunity by Shawn Claud Lawson in the 11th minute. Putna would later make two additional saves for six total on the night.
Oakland came up with the equalizer in the 67th minute as Matt Rickard dribbled up the field and shot the ball past Putna to put the score at 1-1. Rickard had a similar attempt two minutes later but it went just high to contribute to the Golden Grizzlies' seven shots taken in the half.
Torres, sophomore
Gonzalo Romo and redshirt-junior
Thomas Villamil combined for the Flames' four attempts in the second, while they were sent off target. Redshirt-junior
Zack Judickas fired off an attempt that went in the net in the 89th minute, but offsides was called.
In overtime, UIC outshot Oakland, 4-2, with a last-chance effort coming in the final minute of play when Torres took his third shot of the night and caused the Golden Grizzlies' goalkeeper Wes Mink to make his only save.
"With how the Horizon League set the schedule, we do have to learn from this game and get ready for Valparaiso this Wednesday."
The Flames continue Horizon League play at home on Oct. 1 with a 7 p.m. CT matchup against Valparaiso at Flames Field.
