JOLIET, Ill. - A high-scoring match highlighted this Wednesday (Oct. 23) night's home finale for the University of St. Francis men's soccer team as the Saints and visiting Cardinal Stritch combined for nine goals, which included four by CSU's Salvador Nunez, as the Wolves recorded a 6-3 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) win.
 

A five-goal output occurred in the opening 45 minutes of play as Cardinal Stritch scored just 20 seconds into the match on the first of four Nunez goals. USF, which drops to 7-5-4 overall and 4-4-2 in the CCAC this season with the setback, netted the equalizer at the 4:19 mark as midfielder Stefan Jakovljevic (JR/Bregenz, Austria) intercepted a Wolves' pass in their own zone and proceeded to kick the ball into the opposite corner of the CSU goal for his second tally of this season.
 

Unfortunately for USF, Jakovljevic's unassisted goal was voided six minutes later as Nunez scored again unassisted to put the Wolves back in front 2-1. Cardinal Stritch, which improved to 10-4-0 overall and 8-1-0 in the CCAC this fall, registered its third goal of the contest in the 29th minute as Janic Cucinelli produced an unassisted marker giving the Wolves a two-goal cushion (3-1) on the scoreboard.
 

Cardinal Stritch, which claimed a 26-20 shots advantage for the match, scored for the fourth time in the first half at 32:42 on the first of two Nunez from Camil Azzam Ruiz goals.
 

Trailing 4-1 at intermission, the Saints came out in the second half and accounted for the first score just under six minutes into the frame on midfielder-forward Isaac Brown (FR/Rockton, Ill.)'s sixth goal of the season. The unassisted Brown tally cut USF's deficit in half at 4-2, but the Saints weren't able to get any closer for the remainder of the contest as the Nunez-Ruiz combination hooked up again for a goal at 73:05 to give the visitors a 5-2 lead.
 

The match's final two scores came a little less than a minute apart as USF midfielder-forward Leon Laskowski (SR/Hamburg, Germany) converted at 83:40 for his first of this season with an assist going to midfielder Sergio Peres (JR/Goiania, Brazil) as the Saints narrowed the gap to 5-3.  A goal by CSU's Javier Villa-Diaz with 5:29 left in the match represented the final and ninth goal of the contest.  
 

In goal, Carlos Ferrer Coto (JR/La Fresneda, Spain) made nine saves for USF while CSU goalkeeper Pablo Ortiz recorded six saves as both played the entire 90 minutes.
 

Each team compiled four corner kicks and 22 total fouls were called in the contest with Cardinal Stritch being whistled for 13 of those.
 

USF will close out the regular season with a pair of CCAC road matches, starting this Saturday (Oct. 26) against Calumet St. Joseph Crimson Wave. A 12 p.m. (CT) start time is scheduled for the contest at East Chicago (Ind.) Central High School.