Denver 1-0 Eastern Illinois (Kronenberg 52’) | Donate | Denver Ticket Office

DENVER – Redshirt-senior Eric Kronenberg (Boulder, Colo.) scored his second goal in Denver’s last three home games after recovering from back-to-back knee injuries to lead the University of Denver men’s soccer team past Eastern Illinois on Saturday night at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.

“I think when the guys are locked in, they play their role, they are resilient and they stay together, they are a really difficult team to beat,” head coach Jamie Franks said. “At the end of the day, we should have finished the game off earlier.

“Credit Eric (Kronenberg) for a great run and some good build up play from Andre (Shinyashiki) and Ken (Akamatsu). Eric makes us different off the bench. He’s a big time player that can deliver those big time moments for us.”

Denver turned in one of its more complete performances Saturday night, outshooting the visitors 14-3, and creating the only three corners of Saturday night’s match.

Kronenberg scored the 12^th goal of his career in the 52^nd minute, beating the keeper 1v1 after a through ball from junior striker Andre Shinyashiki (Sao Paulo, Brazil). Shinyashiki and junior winger Kenny Akamatsu (Niigata, Japan) linked up, starting from Denver’s left flank. Akamatsu played a ball in the middle of the park to Shinyashiki 40 yards away from the Pioneers goal. Shinyashiki slipped in Kronenberg in-between the Eastern Illinois center and outside back, before the Boulder native un-corked his shot from 16 yards to put the Pioneers ahead.

“I was talking to Andre before the second half, and we noticed the space in the back to play a ball in from the 9,” Kronenberg said. “I told him I was going to make that run off him when we were in together. He played a great ball in, and then I just had to take a touch, and put it in the near post.

The redshirt-senior is now two goals outside of Denver’s career record book top-10, and moved into a tie with Shinyashiki for fifth in career game winning goals with six. With the assist, Shinyashiki moved into sole possession of sixth in career points with 45 (17G-11A).

Denver’s defense held Eastern Illinois to just one clear chance to equalize, conceding a long throw in the 88^th minute, but Christian Sosnowski’s half-volley rose just over the crossbar.

UP NEXT: Denver will begin a four-match road swing on Tuesday when the Pioneers travel to Tulsa. The non-league match is set to kickoff at 6 p.m. MT. DU will then resume Summit League next Saturday at Fort Wayne (5 p.m. MT), followed by a trip to Oral Roberts (Oct. 21/6 p.m. MT). The Pioneers will close out the road swing with another mid-week clash, this time on October 25 at New Mexico (7 p.m. MT). 

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