MARION, Ind. - No. 15 Indiana Wesleyan Men's Soccer opened its Crossroads League schedule with a home match against No. 20 Spring Arbor University on Wednesday evening. The Wildcats gave the Cougars their first loss of the year by a score of 5-1 including two goals from Yarek Carnegie. This marks the first win for Indiana Wesleyan over Spring Arbor since 2022. This Saturday, IWU will travel a short distance to Taylor University for its next match.
For the fourth game in a row, Mariano Chaves opened the scoring for Indiana Wesleyan. The sophomore scored a brilliant header at the end of the 6th minute assisted by Camilo Pereda. Later on, Jose Garcia blasted one past the SAU keeper for his third goal of 2026. Spring Arbor was able to score one of their own in the 32nd minute to cut the deficit before halftime. However, the Wildcats pushed even harder in the second half. Yarek Carnegie would go on to score two goals in a row, one in the 65th assisted by Kai Haskell and another in the 69th assisted by Dennis Otieno. Otieno picked up a goal of his own shortly after and IWU picked up the League opening win.
THE ESSENTIALS
- Location: Marion, Ind. | IWU Soccer Field
- Records: IWU: 7-1-2 (1-0-0) | SAU: 8-1-1 (0-1-0)
- NAIA Top 25 Poll: IWU - #15 | SAU - #20
WHAT HAPPENED
- Mariano Chaves collected the opening goal in the 6th minute. Chaves has been on a tear, now scoring in 4 straight games after tonight.
- Jose Garcia picked up the second goal of the night unassisted in the 20th minute.
- Spring Arbor halved the deficit in the 32nd minute before entering halftime.
- Senior Yarek Carnegie scored the next two goals of the match in the 65th and 69th minutes of action. Those goals were assisted by Kai Haskell and Dennis Otieno respectively.
- The final goal came from the foot of Otieno only two minutes later.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
- 4: Sophomore forward Mariano Chaves has now scored in 4 straight games.
- 7: Yarek Carnegie launched 7 shots, with 6 landing on frame, to get 2 goals.
- 0: The IWU defensive line did not allow a single corner kick for SAU.
CARNEGIE PERSPECTIVE
- "This is what we've been preparing for so a result like this was expected," said leading goal scorer, Yarek Carnegie. "I'm happy to get back on the score sheet and as a team we look forward to the games ahead because there's still a lot of work to be done. We haven't accomplished anything yet."
LOOKING FORWARD
- IWU returns to action this Saturday with a road match against Taylor at 7:00 PM.
- Links for video and stats are available at IWUWildcats.com.
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