Brother Rice’s Angel Santoyo felt himself getting closer and closer to his first varsity goal.

The junior midfielder just had to stick with it and keep shooting.

“I had multiple chances against St. Rita on Tuesday,” Santoyo said of several near misses in that game. “It’s a process. I always have to get better, day by day.

“If you don’t score on a chance, there’s going to be a million other chances if you take them. You miss 100% of the shots that you don’t take, so you’ve got to take them.”

Santoyo took control Thursday night, coming off the bench and delivering with a second-half goal to help the host Crusaders earn a 1-1 Catholic League Blue tie with Mount Carmel.

Freshman goalkeeper David Valencia made three saves for Brother Rice (6-10-3, 2-2-2), which is set to finish third or fourth after losing all six of its league games last season.

Nico Mullen scored and Andres Comp made four saves for Mount Carmel (9-3-5, 1-0-5), which finished the league season with five ties in six games.

Santoyo broke a scoreless tie with 21:20 remaining when he rushed down the right side, took a cross from Jimmy Gricus and ripped a shot into the far side of the net.

“It was a great cross from Jimmy,” Santoyo said. “I made a run. I thought the defender covering me was going to clear it out, but I stopped and it landed on my foot. I just took my opportunity and slotted it in.

“It was just a rush of adrenaline. I’m glad to get the goal this game against a really tough opponent. I’m very happy.”

Brother Rice coach Matt Prunckle has seen Santoyo start to earn a bigger role on the team as a reliable reserve.

“Angel’s been awesome,” Prunckle said. “He’s a kid who has worked really hard. He’s started playing club soccer. He’s taking his opportunities and he’s gone about everything the right way.

“It’s nice for us because we can get him into a little bit of a rotation and we can depend on him. He’s got the right character, and all the soccer stuff is going to keep coming along for him.”

Santoyo said he’s been a soccer player since he was 2 years old.

“I was kicking balls in the house and broke a couple vases, so my mom put me into soccer,” he said. “And the story continues now.”

On the other side, Mullen came up with his second varsity goal to pull the Caravan even. The sophomore defender scored on a 25-yard shot with 14:47 to go.

Mount Carmel coach Antonio Godinez moved Mullen up to an attacking role after his team fell behind.

“I play center back and striker,” Mullen said. “I’m on defense most of the time, but when I go up forward, I’m very happy.

“I just have to be patient because I know I can’t go up too much. But when I do go up there, I can let myself loose and look for passes and shots.”

Godinez knows he has a multidimensional weapon in Mullen.

“He’s a sophomore, he’s come a long way and he’s a scoring threat,” Godinez said. “He’s not afraid to hit shots from outside as we saw.”

Mullen hopes the Caravan can break out of the streak of ties.

“It’s rough, but at least we’re fighting back,” he said. “We always come back, but these ties have to become wins. We always pick it up after the other team scores, but we need to turn it on from the beginning.”