Schreiner holds off Howard Payne 3-2 in a finish marked by four late cards

Schreiner University’s men’s soccer team held off Howard Payne 3-2 on Saturday at Mountaineer Soccer Field, with Cameron Hoschar scoring twice — including the go-ahead goal in the 61st minute — in a match that turned chaotic in its final minutes.

Howard Payne struck first, with Xzavier Saldana converting in the 15th minute off an assist from Tristan Merkh. Schreiner answered with two goals in a three-minute span before halftime: Nicholas Vasquez tied it unassisted in the 29th minute, and Hoschar put the Mountaineers ahead in the 31st. Howard Payne leveled it again at 2-2 in the 44th minute on a goal from Francisco Perez. Hoschar struck again in the 61st minute, assisted by Gabe Zagastizabal and Cody Brown, for the eventual winner.

Howard Payne out-shot Schreiner 20-14 on the night, but Schreiner goalkeeper Mason Miller turned away 12 of 14 shots on goal to preserve the result. Howard Payne’s Adrian Villa made three saves in the loss.

The match stayed mostly clean until its final 15 minutes, when seven cards were shown in a stretch bookended by Andrew Womack’s yellow for Howard Payne in the 74th minute and a sequence of four cards inside of two and a half minutes at the very end: Connor Parker (Howard Payne) in the 87th, Cameron Phipps (Howard Payne) in the 88th, and at 89:21 both a red card for Schreiner’s Diego Saenz and a yellow for Howard Payne’s Francisco Perez, followed eight seconds later by a yellow card shown to Schreiner goalkeeper Mason Miller. Cody Brown (Schreiner) and Cameron Hoschar also picked up yellows earlier in the match.

The win moves Schreiner to 4-4-3 overall and 2-1-2 in American Southwest Conference play. Howard Payne falls to 4-6-2 overall and 1-3-1 in the ASC.