Dayton, Ohio – The Central Arkansas men's soccer team returned to action on Sunday morning, taking on the Fort Wayne Mastodons in the Dayton Flyer Classic. For the first time this season, the Bears found themselves victorious, taking down the Mastodons 3-0.
The Bears (1-5-0) got off to a fast start on the day, as
Kyosuke Kubota launched a cross into the Fort Wayne (1-2-3) box in the sixth minute.
Pepe San Roman rose above the fray, winning the ball and heading it past Mastodon keeper Will Hathaway to give the Bears a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the season. The Bears would get looks from
Lucas Genty,
Niklas Brodacki, and San Roman in over the final 39 minutes of the first half, but would go into the break with a one-goal lead.
Chris Holmes, Brodacki,
Ferdinand Matebu, and
Jake Bates all took shots early in the second period, before Brodacki added an insurance goal for the Bears in the 68
th minute, fielding a pass from San Roman and firing it home from 10 yards out. Kubota and Brodacki would both fire wide over the next 11 minutes, before the UCA defense blocked a shot and started the counter. Brodacki received a pass on the break-away and beat Hathaway in the one-on-one, firing to the lower corner just inside the right post to complete the brace and push the UCA lead to 3-0 with his fourth goal of the season.
The Matstodon attack, which had been completely shut down by the Bears on the day, finally put together a string of possession with five minutes on the clock, with Edel Ensaldo-Bustos, Matthew Lieshout, and Nick Cozad all putting shots on goal in a 90 second span, but
Marc Olsen proved up to the task, making the save on all three to preserve the clean sheet.
"That is the result that we've been looking for, and we've been working incredibly hard for it," said UCA head coach Ross Duncan. "To say it was a deserved result is an understatement. The boys have incredible strength of character and it showed today. Digging the group out of a frustrating string of results is very difficult, but all credit goes to the guys for making it happen."
On the day, Central Arkansas took 14 shots and put six on goal, while limiting the Mastodons to just three attempts on target in 18 shots. Brodacki led the UCA attack, putting three of his five shots on target, while San Roman put two on frame and Bates was on goal with his only shot. Olsen made three saves and picked up his first shutout of the season.
Following the match, senior Blake Stricker and Olsen earned All-Tournament honors. Stricker, who played both center back and right back for the Bears, helped marshal a UCA backline that limited Dayton and Fort Wayne to just two goals, while Olsen made 10 saves and save percentage of .833.
The Bears return home to open Missouri Valley Conference play on Wednesday. UCA will host Missouri State, with kickoff set for 7:00 PM.
"We have things we have to fix and improve upon to prepare for conference play this week," said Duncan. "We are not content with getting and win and then trying to ride that out. We step up the intensity tomorrow in training to ensure that we bring out best performance to date against Missouri State."
