CONWAY, Ark. – On the precipice of clinching a spot in the ASUN Championships, the Central Arkansas men's soccer team heads to Lynchburg, Va., to take on Liberty on Friday. Kicking off at 5 p.m. CT, the Bears and Flames are both fighting for a spot in the conference tournament, although differing in scale.
 
The Bears (5-4-3, 4-1-1 ASUN) hold the second-best record in the conference, needing a win to lock up the No. 2 seed. By locking in the spot, Central Arkansas would earn the right to host the first two rounds of the conference tournament, hosting a neutral game between the three and six seeds, before facing the winner. The Bears could also clinch the No. 2 seed with a tie and a loss or tie by Florida Gulf Coast.
 
Last time out, the Bears and the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles played to a draw at the Bill Stephens Complex, finishing 2-2 last Sunday. Down 1-0 to an early PK, Bernard Assibey-Rhule equalized the match after taking the ball off the foot of the FGCU keeper. Sebastian Andreassen scored his team-leading fourth goal later in the match, giving the Bears a short-lived lead before FGCU tied the match in the 81^st minute.
 
Central Arkansas has held the league's second-best offense this season, scoring 2.00 goals per match. Nine Bears have logged goals this season, with one game-winner coming as an own goal off the defense of Bellarmine earlier in the year. Despite the scoring numbers, the Bears aren't doing it by peppering their opponents with shots, only averaging a middle-of-the-road 10.8 shots per game. Where Central Arkansas makes up for it, however, is in the accuracy of those shots; the Bears rank seventh in the country in shot accuracy, putting 51.2 percent of their shots on goal. This translates to Central Arkansas leading the ASUN in scoring percentage, finishing over 18 percent of its shots, nearly four percent higher than second place.
 
Across the pitch, Liberty enters the weekend with a 3-4-5 record, sitting 1-2-2 in conference. While the Bears play for a hosting seed, the Flames are playing just to get in, sitting tied for sixth as the schedule winds down.
 
The Flames last competed in a couple of nonconference games, most recently against Georgia State. Playing a team that has more than twice the number of wins, Liberty fell to the Panthers 2-1, finally getting on the board in the 88^th minute after trailing the entire second half. Liberty is led in scoring by Luke Eberle, who currently ranks third in the conference with six goals.
 
Liberty, despite not having quite the offense that Central Arkansas does, has a similar scoring method, getting clean, quality opportunities to finish goals. The top two scorers for the Flames have 10 combined goals this season, while putting an astounding 22 of their 36 shots on frame.
 
Friday's match is set for a 5 p.m. start time, with live stats available here.