Men's Soccer Drops Opener to North Central 2-0

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (08/30/2025) — The Monmouth College men's soccer team started the season on Saturday at home against North Central with a 2-0 loss.

North Central took the lead in the 15th minute with a ball crossed in front of the goal mouth and tapped in at the far post. In the 36th minute, Ryan Rodriguez-Gardea (El Paso, Texas) was called for a foul in the box that resulted in a North Central penalty kick. Before the attempt, Koby Bodner (Lincoln, Nebraska) was shown a second yellow card and the Scots were down to 10. The Cardinals converted the PK to lead 2-0. Omar Portillo (El Paso, Texas) had a shot on goal that was saved right after the restart and the game went into half at 2-0.

Isai Barajas (El Paso, Texas) tested the NCC keeper early in the second half and Justin Barrett (Las Vegas, Nevada) forced a save on a free kick in the 59th minute. Aimilios Ioannou (Larnaca, Cyprus) put a shot on goal that was saved off a free kick in the 63rd minute and Monmouth keeper Luis Villa (El Paso, Texas) made a series of saves in the 65th to 75th minutes. The Scots had two straight corner kicks and forced another save by the NCC keeper in the final moments of the game.

Villa made seven saves on the day, four in the first half and three in the second as he played all 90 minutes.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Treyton Yi (Streamwood, Illinois) played all 90 minutes ... Yi played all 90 minutes in 15 of 16 games as a freshman last season with a total of 1429 minutes played out of a possible 1440 ... The Scots used 19 players including eight newcomers ... In addition to Rodriguez-Gardea, Mikah Allen (Swansea, Illinois), Federico Moreno-Reyes (Wheeling, Illinois), Alex Cruz (El Paso, Texas), Paul Oros (El Paso, Texas), Alex Franco (El Paso, Texas), Bryan Corona (El Paso, Texas) and Ian Rowland (Jackson, Georgia) all made their debuts ... Allen, Cruz, Corona and Rodriguez-Gardea started ... Ioannou and Barajas both had two shots on goal ... Villa made a career-high seven saves ... Juniors Owen Murray (Cedar City, Utah) and Logan Corgan (Geneseo, Illinois) are captains for the 2025 season ... The Scots are 0-4 all-time against North Central ... The teams last met in 2012 ... The Scots are home again on Tuesday with a 4 p.m. game against Augustana.