Men's Soccer Cruises to Fourth Straight Road Victory to Open Season

(Cincinnati, OH)-- The Cleary Cougar men's soccer team have been road warriors to start the 2025 season playing each of their first four games on the road.  After Saturday's 5-0 victory over the University of Cincinnati-Clermont Cougars, the Cleary Cougars have now won each of those road games to improve to 4-0 on the season.

Cleary controlled the game from the opening kickoff, and almost had the opening goal in the 4th minute when Felix Arndt received a back-heel pass from Atario Brown that left him with only the goalkeeper to beat, but his shot was easily saved to keep the game scoreless.  After twenty-five minutes of fighting for the game's opening goal, Cleary finally broke through in the 26th minute.  Atario Brown dribbled up the left hand side and cut in towards the middle, firing a shot towards goal that was blocked by UC-Clermont.  Fortunately for the Cougars, the ball fell right back to Brown, whose second shot beat the goalkeeper, and gave Cleary a 1-0 first half lead.  Four minutes later, the lead doubled, this time on a corner kick.  Thomas Kanouna delivered a dangerous ball into the box, finding the head of Dillon Croft, who redirected the ball back across the face of goal to his teammate Jack Heald.  Heald took that pass and put the ball into the net for his third goal of the season, and gave Cleary a 2-0 lead heading into the half.

Cleary came out firing in the second half, and scored their third goal in the 52nd minute.  An errant throw by the UC-Clermont goalkeeper went directly to Thomas Kanouna.  Kanouna dribbled right up the middle, drawing the UC-Clermont defense towards him, and leaving Miguel Andriano Castillo wide open to his right.  Kanouna passed it there, where Castillo fired his shot into the net, scoring his first goal of the game.  Less than a minute later, Cleary struck again to make the score 4-0.  Benji Sulcas got the break started when he stole the ball from a UC-Clermont player.  Sulcas quickly passed it up the left hand side to Atario Brown, who made a move and fired a perfect cross to the head of Miguel Andriano Castillo, who then scored his second goal of the game.  That score held until late in the game.  Oscar Clarke took the ball and sent it wide to Callum Johnson on the right hand side.  Johnson beat his defender towards the touch line and fired a cross to the back post where Muriuki Mwirigi was waiting, and he scored his goal as a Cougar, and made the score 5-0 in favor of Cleary.

Enrico Bibbo would earn his second shutout victory in his second start as a Cougar, and is now 2-0 on the season.  He made 1 save on the only shot on target he faced.  Cleary outshot UC-Clermont 29-9 in the game, and held an 8-2 advantage on corner kicks.  Cleary committed 10 fouls to UC-Clermont's 9 in the game.

Cleary improves to 4-0 on the season, and will look to stay unbeaten after their first home game of the year.  The Cougars will host the Albion College Britons on Wednesday, September 10, at Lake Trust Stadium, with the game scheduled to start at 6:00 PM.