Peoria, Ill. –

The Central Arkansas men’s soccer team struck early on Saturday, but surrendered a late goal to Bradley for a 1-1 tie.

The Bears (7-8-1, 1-4-1 MVC) got on the board early when, in the 11^th minute, Shafial Mason fielded a clearance attempt by the Braves and put it away from six yards out to give Central Arkansas the 1-0 lead. “It was a quick free kick, but we got Zac (Burns) down the line and he picked it up,” said Coach Ross Duncan of the goal. “The bounce to Shafial was fortunate, but it was a product of Zac’s hard work on the right side.”

Bradley (10-5-4, 3-2-1 MVC) threatened multiple times in the second half, but failed to get the equalizer until the very last minute. In the 90^th minute, Keegan Balle worked his way through traffic and fired off a shot to knot the score at 1-1 with just 28 seconds left. “We got pinned in with free kicks and long throw-ins, and just broke right at the end,” explained Duncan. “It’s tough because we defended so well all night, we just need to work on that for Wednesday.”

Despite the Braves’ late goal, Duncan took a lot of positives from the match: “I was very encouraged by what happened for a good portion of the game tonight. I thought we defended the set pieces really well, and Cody (Gibson) made a huge save in the second half to keep us alive. Our guys are really raring to go; if we could play tomorrow, they would want to.”
The Bears return to action on Wednesday, again battling Bradley. The game is in the first round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, in which the Bears are the sixth seed. The game kicks off at 6:00. A live video stream will be available on the conference’s website.