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Falcons’ first loss at home sets up rematch with DU on Thursday
Jesse Henderson scored in the first half and Collin Audley notched a second-half goal to lead the University of Denver men’s soccer team to a 2-0 victory over Air Force on Saturday at Cadet Soccer Stadium in the regular-season finale for both teams. With the victory, Denver improved to 5-9-3 overall and finished 2-4-1 in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation , while the Falcons fell to 7-8-1 and 2-5 in league play.
The teams will meet again in five days in the first round of the MPSF tournament. The Pioneers will host the Falcons at 7 p.m. Thursday at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. Denver finished fourth in the regular-season standings and the Falcons placed fifth.
Henderson opened the scoring in the 38th minute, when he placed a shot past Falcon goalie Jim Gullo with a host of players vying for the ball in front of the net. Matt Kirby found the ball and one-touched it to Henderson, whose shot hit Gullo’s arm but still went into the net.
Air Force senior Jared Gomez received a red card with just less than 33 minutes remaining in the match. And despite playing a man down, the Falcons had a prime chance to tie the score in the 69th minute, but Ryan Robinson’s shot from eight yards out sailed wide.
Audley scored an insurance goal in the 79th minute after taking a pass from Alex Tarnoczi and firing a rocket from 20 yards out past Gullo into the upper left corner. Audley had a game-high four total shots, while Tarnoczi had two of DU’s five shots on goal. The Falcons attempted six total shots.
Gullo made three saves for Air Force, while DU’s Joe Willis made one in posting his third shutout of the season.
Air Force finished the season with a 5-1-1 record at home.
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