Kansas City, Mo. – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team was expecting to open the 2016 season against the UMKC 'Roos on Friday night. Instead, the Bears played a solid first half before weather washed the game out.

The Bears came out ready to play on the night, putting up seven shots in the first half, including three on goal. That offensive pressure peaked in the 24^th moment, when junior Dango Kumwenda lofted a cross into the box, where it found freshman Niklas Brodacki, who headed it home to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

"We came out strong and were able to put together a great goal from Brodacki," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "It came off a pattern that we'd been training, so it was just reward for our hard work through the preseason."

That lead would hold until halftime, when a storm rolled into the area and washed out the match after a 2 hour weather delay. Per NCAA rules, teams must play 70 minutes for a match to be considered official. As such no stats will count for tonight's action.

"It's obviously frustrating to get any game cancelled due to something that's out of our control; especially when we were winning and in control of the match, but there's no sense in worrying about it now," said Duncan. "The guys are fired up. They're angry that we couldn't finish the game and complete the victory, but this gives us some ammo going into Sunday."

The Bears will know open the season on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM, when they head to Springfield, Missouri to play a neutral-site match against Green Bay.