The No. 1 Central Methodist men’s soccer team added another chapter to its historic rivalry with Missouri Valley College, claiming a 4-0 victory over the No. 8 Vikings Wednesday night at Davis Field. 

Wednesday’s contest was a rematch of last year’s Heart Tournament Championship and NAIA National Championship semifinal between the two sides. 

With the victory, the Eagles claim their fourth-consecutive regular season conference championship, improving to 13-0 and 10-0 in the Heart. Missouri Valley College falls to 10-4 and 6-3 in conference play. 

Both sides remained deadlocked for the first 34 minutes of action, before junior Alessandro Salvadego scored his 13th goal of the season on the assist from sophomore Theo Klein, giving CMU a 1-0 lead. 

Senior Marcos German padded Central’s lead after dribbling down the Vikings’ end-line and finding junior Christian Sanchez near the net, who then dished the ball back to German for the score in the 59th minute. 

Salvadego added the third goal of the match less than 10 minutes later on the assist from junior Jayton Johnson, before  freshman Andre Piterman sealed the game with just seconds to go on a pass from Salvadego.

The Eagles finished the match with 17 shots, including six on goal. Salvadego led the offense with three shots taken, including two on goal and a pair of scores, his 13th and 14th of the season. He also added an assist. Freshman Vitor Antelo, sophomore Tom Irion, senior Billy Nzojyibwami, Sanchez, and German all tallied two shots. 

Overall, the CMU defense held the Vikings to just four shots with one coming on goal, including zero first half shots. Sophomore Stefano Camerlengo returned to the Eagles’ lineup as the starting goalkeeper, making one save in a full 90 minutes of action.