SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros men's soccer team was defeated 2-0 by the No. 16 Missouri State Bears on Saturday at the Betty and Bobby Allison South Stadium.
Missouri State (3-0-2) received goals from
Kian Yari and
Aadne Bruseth. Goalkeeper
Harry Townsend pitched a shutout with one save. UTRGV (1-3-1) had freshman goalkeeper
Simon Madsen in goal and he recorded one save. The Bears outshot the Vaqueros 13-3 and 3-2 with shots on goal.
The Vaqueros defense held strong despite Missouri State maintaining possession in its offensive half for 72 percent of the first half. A bevy of offside calls against the Bears helped UTRGV's cause in the first 12 minutes.
Junior defender
Fernando Silva was particularly strong when MSU was charging for the net. He stymied a Bears chance by heading away a cross, then he showed up again with a great stop late in the first half, heading away a would-be shot on goal when the Bears were attacking hard. UTRGV fouls resulted in two chances for the Bears in the final five minutes of the first half, but both were missed.
Junior forward
Jason Robles, junior La Joya High alum
Isaac Ochoa, graduate student midfielder
Yusuf Cueceoglu, sophomore defender
Finn O'Connor and freshman defender
Juan Pablo Gonzalez made defensive contributions throughout the contest.
Senior defender
Jan Engels, Cueceoglu and Robles hustled to try to get the offense going, but UTRGV didn't get many scoring opportunities. The Vaqueros took three shots, sending two on goal, throughout the match.
Twenty-six seconds into the second half, the Bears took their first shot of the frame, but again it sailed out. Silva continued to play well inside the penalty zone along with Ochoa. UTRGV kept the space in front of their net packed tightly with defenders to keep the Bears at bay for most of the contest.
Missouri State scored twice in the 75
th minute to secure a victory. Yari sent a long shot to the net which sailed over the heads of a leaping Madsen at 75:39. Six seconds later, a great pass from
Jon Koka found
Aadne Bruseth, who launched a shot that Madsen did make contact with, but it fell off the freshman's hand and into the front right corner of the net.
UTRGV is back in action Saturday against Omaha at 6:30 p.m. at the UTRGV Soccer and Track & Field Complex.
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