The Lindenwood Men's Soccer team (6-2-6, 3-0-3 OVC) matched up against the SIUE Cougars on Thursday afternoon on the road with the result being a huge 4-0 victory for the Lions. With the victory, Lindenwood made their way to top the conference and currently sits in first place in the OVC standings with four matches to play in the regular season.
Defender
Clement Baron had a great opportunity that was saved by the SIUE goalkeeper in the opening minutes of the first half following a set piece opportunity. That pressure was followed by
David Magalhaes and
Leland Gray, who fired shots at the quarter hour mark towards the SIUE goalkeeper with the first being saved and the follow up being blocked.
At the midway point of the first half, goalkeeper
Quinn Closson made a big save following a deflected effort from the Cougars. Lindenwood followed that save with an excellent defensive display, holding SIUE to no shot attempts for the remainder of the half. The Lions rattled off six shots of their own with two of those forcing a save out of the Cougars keeper. In the dying seconds of the first half,
Jeremiah Trusty had his shot blocked following the last of four LU corners in the first half. A great first half performance away from home saw the two sides scoreless at the half.
In the 50th minute the Lions broke the scoreless tie with a goal from
Ethan Walls, who scored his first collegiate goal. His goal was assisted by
Eddy Mwanje and
Philip Viberg Rasmussen. Rasmussen drove down the touchline and found Mwanje who laid off the ball for Walls to create space for the goal. Similar to the first half, the LU defense continued to deal with pressure from SIUE, who fired three shots simultaneously at Lindenwood's goal with blocks flying in preventing the equalizer. Closson made his second save of the contest in the 73rd minute with the shot coming off the crossbar following his touch.
Forward
David Magalhaes gave the Lions a 2-0 lead in the 74th minute from the penalty spot after winning the penalty and converting the kick following a foul from the SIUE goalkeeper. A third goal came seven minutes later when
Javaun Mills buried a shot into the back of the net from inside the box after the Cougars back line turned the ball over to the midfielder. With less than three minutes to go, Lindenwood added another goal to make it 4-0 thanks to a free kick taken by
Miguel Adoboe, who flicked the ball into the net with a glance off the SIUE defender.
"Another step in the right direction with a solid road performance." said head coach
Kris Bertsch. "Getting the early goal after halftime from Ethan Walls on a quality build up opened the game up in the second half. We were then able to keep the pressure on and add three additional goals and the shutout. Happy for our guys on their effort and performance."
Next up for the Lions is a trip to Evansville, Indiana for a matchup with the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles on Sunday afternoon. The match is scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm with the stream being on ESPN+.
