In a battle of the top two teams in the nation, the No. 1 ranked Central Methodist men’s soccer team came away with a thrilling 2-1 victory over No. 2 Oklahoma Wesleyan on Wednesday night at Davis Field. 

With the win, Central improves its overall record to 15-0, while OKWU falls to 15-2. 

Both sides entered the halftime break scoreless. Central would take advantage of a foul inside the penalty box three minutes into the second half, as junior forward Alessandro Salvadego converted the penalty kick to give CMU a 1-0 lead in the 48th minute. 

The Eagles of Oklahoma Wesleyan would even the score in the 63rd minute. The match would remain tied for the rest of regulation and nearly both overtime periods. 

In the 104th minute, senior defender Marcos German sent a cross in on a corner kick, which fell in the box and was deflected in by an OKWU player for an own goal, the game-winner for Central.

CMU outshot Oklahoma Wesleyan 14-8 in the match, including seven shots on frame for Central. Salvadego paced the offense with four shots followed by freshman Stefano Campisi with three. 

Sophomore goalkeeper Stefano Camerlengo played all 104 minutes in between the posts for CMU, recording two saves en route to his 13th win of the year.

“Double overtime again,” said CMU coach Alex Nichols. “We have a ton of respect for Oklahoma Wesleyan. They’re special. So it’s going to be an intense game every single time we play them, and while we deserved the win today, we were fortunate to come out on top. Just two great teams facing off against each other.

“We learned we need to stay together,” Nichols said. “We knew it was going to be a fight and I’m sure we’ll both move on and we’ll see them again.”