CHICAGO, Ill. --- The No. 9 Anteaters would weather a wild first half to hammer home a pair of strikes in the second half and remained undefeated with a 4-2 victory over the Illinois-Chicago Flames at Flames Field on Sunday.
The Flames (2-1-2) flew out of the gates with a couple early shots and a score from Zach Kaleta off a corner kick in the fourth minute.
UCI (6-0-0) would tie it up quickly with a ball played in the box by Enrique Cardenas (Coachella / Coachella Valley HS) that set up Christian Hernandez (Palmdale / Taft College) in the 13th minute.
UIC would regain the lead ten minutes later off another corner kick that Craig Krzyskowski would put home.
The Anteaters tied it right back two minutes later as Jonathan Rivas (Norwalk / Cerritos College) would get his first goal of the season in the 24th minute.
UCI would get two more shots as the half remain 2-2.
Each squad entered the second half all riled up as three yellow cards were handed out early. The Flames managed two shots, one on goal, before UCI would break the tie.
Cardenas put away his third goal of the weekend and the eventual game-winner in the 58th minute making it 3-2, 'Eaters.
Both squads would fire blanks and receive another yellow card as the back-and-forth half continued until the 77th minute.
Christopher Santana (Bishop / Bishop Union HS) would find his way onto the score sheet with an unassisted score to stretch the lead to 4-2.
The Anteaters would take control of the final minutes allowing just one more shot by the Flames to ensure the victory.
UCI's win propels them to 6-0-0, the first time in school history the UCI men have won their first six matches. This squad is rivaled by only the 2008 team that went unbeaten (8-0-2) in their first 10 matches.
Andrew Fontein (Las Vegas, Nev. / Sierra Vista HS) came up with five saves, all in the second half.
The 'Eaters face their toughest test of the season next weekend as they travel to the campus of South Florida to face up-and-coming team, Florida-Gulf Coast (Fri. Sept. 16) and No. 11-ranked South Florida (Sun. Sept. 18) as part of the South Florida Tournament.
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