Atlanta, Georgia – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team was on the road Sunday afternoon, traveling to Atlanta, Georgia to battle the Sun Belt's Georgia State Panthers. The Bears suffered their first loss of the season, falling to the Panthers 3-1.
Georgia State (3-1-0) got on the board in the 23
rd minute, as Nick Hague connected with Rashid Alarape, who put the Panthers up 1-0 with his first goal of the season. The Panthers would add to their lead in the 36
th minute, when Hannes Burmeister found Oliver Haines, who collected his first goal of the season.
Haines would tack on another goal in the 49
th minute, collecting a pass from Alarape and hammering it home from close to make it 3-0 GSU.
The Bears (2-1-0) refused to go down without a fight, getting 10 shots after the final Panther goal. Central Arkansas was able to find the net in the 79
th minute, when
Muny Chan slid a pass to
Wes Carson, who cut the lead to 3-1 with his third goal of the season. UCA would get promising attempts from
Colton Jackson,
Harris Partain, and Carson over the final 11 minutes of the match, but were unable to find another goal.
"Today was a tough day, because we did a lot of things right," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "We came out with energy both to start the game and in the second half. We outshot our opponent, and put more on goal. The difference is that we made mistakes to put the opponent in dangerous areas."
On the day, the Bears put 10 of their 14 shots on goal, led by Carson, who was on target with four of his six attempts. Jackson and Partain each added a pair of shots on goal, while
Pepe San Roman and Chan each put one shot on frame.
"This result is about taking a lesson and growing from it," said Duncan. "We are a strong team and the resolve is there, so a loss on the road isn't going to rattle our confidence, but we need to fix the mistakes we made. We are already chomping at the bit to get home and prepare for Friday night."
The Bears return to the Stephens for a pair of matches next weekend. UCA will play host to Houston Baptist on Friday night, wrapping up a doubleheader with the women's team at 8:00 PM, before battling Incarnate Word at 12:00 PM on Sunday.
