The Lindenwood Men's Soccer team (4-2-5, 1-0-2 OVC) added their fifth Ohio Valley Conference point of the season on Sunday afternoon behind a 1-1 tie against Houston Christian. The Lions outshot the Huskies 9-4 in the match, and were led offensively by
David Magalhaes, who had five of Lindenwood's nine shots this afternoon.
Magalhaes recorded the contest's first three shots, with the best opportunity coming on his final attempt in the 17th minute.
Milton Kapaya sent an upfield pass that landed at the feet of
Luca Bartoni, who found Magalhaes down the middle of the Huskies' defense. Magalhaes quickly fired a shot toward the right post, but his attempt went just wide as the match remained scoreless. A few minutes later,
Luke Neely recorded Lindenwood's only shot on goal of the half off a set piece. Magalhaes took the free kick and sent the ball toward the box, where it bounced to Neely, but the shot was denied by the HCU goalkeeper. The Lions' defense held HCU to just one shot in the first half, which came in the 40th minute, but the attempt sailed wide left as the match went into halftime scoreless.
In the second half, the Huskies struck first in the 71st minute when HCU's Aidan Lopez broke through the Lindenwood defensive line and sent a shot into the lower left corner of the goal to give the Huskies a 1-0 advantage. The Lions quickly responded, however, as Clement Baron scored his first goal of the season in the 75th minute off a corner kick. Eddy Mwanje delivered the corner into the box, where Baron tracked down the cross and headed the ball toward the left side of the goal, beating the HCU goalkeeper to even the score at 1-1 with 15 minutes remaining.
Lindenwood had another scoring opportunity a few minutes later off a free kick from just outside the box, but the Lions were unable to find the go-ahead goal as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
"I think we used halftime to readjust and learn from the first half." said head coach Kris Bertsch. "We were able to score on the corner kick with great service and a great job of attacking the ball. The guys fought back after they scored the first goal of the match and it was a really good response to it. I'm very pleased that we were able to get that and unfortunately we didn't get the victory, but usually when we play these guys it's always very tight."
Lindenwood will remain at home as they will host UTRGV on Thursday night for their next OVC contest. Kickoff will be at 7 PM on ESPN+
