CONWAY, Ark. - The Central Arkansas Men's Soccer Team earned a 2-0 victory over Bellarmine in the ASUN Championships Semifinal. Karim Diao scored both goals punching the Bears ticket to the ASUN Final in Nashville, Tennessee.
Â
FIRST HALF - OPPORTUNITIES BUT NOTHING TO OPEN IT
The Bears started quickly out of the gate when Rubyn Gill put the first shot on goal in the fifth minute. Jonathan Randall nearly found himself through on goal, but was taken down hard just seconds later by a Bellarmine defender who would then see a yellow card.
Â
Chances would come far and few between the two sides until Zach Schawl was called into action in the 25th minute making a wonderful one-on-one save. The Bears had opportunities after the save but were unable to put them on target, coming from Katsuyoshi Kimishima and Ole Kjoerholt.
Â
SECOND HALF - PUTTING ON A SHOW
In the 48th minute Mathias Bendiksen started a quick counter-attack before slipping a timely through ball into the feet of Karim Diao who fired it first time into the bottom corner. It didn't take long for Diao to grab his second of the match when Randall played a back-heel to Diao who ran into a 50/50 challenge with a defender before beating him inside and smashing a curled shot off the post and into the back of the net.Â
Â
The Bears held strong at the back and nearly grabbed a third from Alberto Suarez and then again had a big chance through Kimishima, both just barely missing.
Â
HEAR FROM THE PLAYERS
"It feels great to come from a loss in our last game. I think we did a great job all around. We fought hard against a really good team. We are looking forward to the final," said Alberto Suarez after the clean sheet and the semifinal win.
Â
"At home and being in front of the crowd the goals were special. We didn't want it to be our last game so we played to make the team proud and the university proud," said the goal-scorer Karim Diao.
Â
The Bears travel to Nashville, Tennessee to take on Lipscomb in the ASUN Championship on November 13, with kickoff set for 6 PM CT.
