Only home game ends in loss
Sunday, October 8 @ 3:48 PM
For the five seniors on the men's soccer roster, Sunday's match against Midwestern State wasn't what they had imagined for the team's lone home game of the season.
The 1-0 loss gave the Bears a 5-7-1 record with just three games left, all back on the road.
"It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth," head coach Chad Flanders said about the loss on the senior's only home match of the season.
"It's really disappointed because we've played a lot better on the road the last four games, and even though we'd lost some games, we played better soccer."
The Bears had prime opportunities in the first 25 minutes of the game but couldn't capitalize on any.
All three of UCA's shots on goal were early in the first half. The team only had two shots in the second half, none were directed towards the goal.
MSU on the other hand had just one shot on goal in the first half but made that one count as Brandon Swartzendruber scored with 12 minutes remaining in the first half on what Coach Flanders called a counter.
"I thought we lacked an ability to have any impact in the game. If we'd have scored a goal in the first 25 minutes, the game's totally different, but instead we give one up on the counter."
While those first 25 minutes seemed to be played almost entirely with UCA on their offensive side of the field, the second half seemed to be mostly the opposite.
"You've got to get the ball in the dangerous area of the field. We got in there, but we didn't get anything out of it.
"We didn't create enough to be dangerous besides the first 20 minutes in the first half.
It was very disappointing to see, because we played a lot better than that the last couple of weeks."
Every senior was able to get into the game and play at least 15 minutes. Senior Nick Hankins had one of the shots on goal.
"I'm sure they (seniors) are disappointed," Flanders said. "They've done a great job as a group of giving us leadership and playing great soccer. We're going to miss them."
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