EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Lindenwood men's soccer team (6-6-6, 3-3-4 OVC) dropped their final regular season match of the season 4-2 at the hands of Southern Indiana (2-12-3, 0-6-3 OVC) in Evansville, Ind. on Sunday. LU allowed their most goals of the season against USI.
"Disappointing result and a missed opportunity to close out the regular season on a high note," said head coach
Kris Bertsch. "Certainly field conditions made it extremely difficult to play but it's not an excuse as both teams played on it. Overall, too many uncharacteristic mistakes by us and our opponent took advantage. We'll need to be a lot better in the OVC Tournament if we expect to win and advance."
Lindenwood had no shortage of shots on Sunday as the Lions took 20 landing two in the net against the Screaming Eagles. In the first half, both teams took eight shots while both teams made three saves each.
Southern Indiana struck first in this OVC battle in the 19th minute of play as Elmer Garcia scored his second goal of the season. After a yellow card and a penalty was called in the 26th minute on USI,
Ethan Blake scored his team-high fifth goal of the season on the penalty kick.
Late in the first half, Southern Indiana would strike again for their second goal after Pablo Won scored in the 44th minute. Lindenwood's goalie
Enzo Gil made two of his three saves during that possession before he was taken out and replaced by
Gavin Roberts.
Coming out of the second half, the Screaming Eagles went on the attack early scoring just five minutes in. Diego Rodriguez punched in his first goal of the season for USI on Roberts. Southern Indiana had five shots on goal in the second half.
Lindenwood cut the lead to one shortly after in the 51st minute with
Jens Haukeland's third goal of the season. Both goals by the Lions on Sunday went unassisted. USI secured the win with a late goal in the 77th minute to hand the Lions their third OVC loss of the season.
The Lions posted a total of 20 shots with six of them landing on goal. Gil and Roberts combined for six saves on the afternoon, with Roberts suffering the loss for Lindenwood.
LU will be back in action as they will head to Edwardsville, Ill. on Sunday, Nov. 5 for the Ohio Valley Conference Championships. Lindenwood secured the #4 seed and will take on #5 Chicago State at 4:00 p.m. For more information go to lindenwoodlions.com.
