Evansville, Ind. –
The Central Arkansas men's soccer team returned to Missouri Valley Conference play on Saturday night, heading to Evansville, Indiana to take on the Purple Aces of Evansville. The Bears were unable to find the net, while the Aces struck three times to down Central Arkansas 3-0.
Evansville (3-6-1, 1-1 MVC) took a 1-0 lead in the 15
th minute, when Faik Hajderovich played the ball over the top of the Central Arkansas defense to Mark Gonzalez, who slotted the ball past Central Arkansas keeper
Harrison Veith on the left side of the net.
The Aces added a pair of insurance goals just 80 seconds apart in the second half, as Landon Souder and Charlie Macias each struck near the 70 minute mark to put Evansville up 3-0.
"Give Evansville credit," said Central Arkansas head coach Ross Duncan following the match. "We came out very strong and they were able to withstand our pressure. We had some scoring chances but the kept us out and countered us with a nice goal to start things off. They punished our mistakes and we couldn't do the same."
Central Arkansas (2-7, 0-2 MVC) attempted seven shots on the night, putting four on goal.
Logan Miller led the Bears' attack, placing two of his three attempts on frame, while
Wes Carson and
Manuel Montal each put one attempt on target. Evansville took eight shots on the night, placing four on goal. Macias, Souder, Gonzalez, and Luis Romero each placed on shot on target.
Eric Teppen earned the clean sheet for the Aces, making four saves, while Veith took the loss for Central Arkansas, making one save and allowing three goals.
Central Arkansas returns to action next Saturday, hosting MVC foe SIU-Edwardsville. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00 PM at the Bill Stephens Soccer Complex. "We don't have any choice but to keep pushing," said Duncan on what's next for the Bears. "We have an incredibly resilient group and they will do anything we ask of them. We need to make some changes philosophically and this is our most important week of training; we are going to ask a lot of them. We have all of the right pieces, so it's up to us as coaches to come up with the plan and for our guys to execute."
