CHICKASHA, Okla. - The Mid-America Christian University men's soccer team entered play on Tuesday night with a lot of confidence heading to the University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma. The Evangels beat the Drovers in the regular season in 2017, and MACU eliminated USAO from the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament on the Drovers' own field in the quarterfinal round of the postseason championship.
The Drovers came to the field with revenge on their minds, and unfortunately for MACU, the Evangels were unable to replicate that success on this night.
MACU (7-2, 2-1 SAC) yielded two goals in the first half, and the Evangels fell to USAO (9-2, 3-0 SAC) 4-1.
The match got off to a tentative start, with the first shot coming in the 14th minute from Tiuri Schieving, but USAO goalkeeper Daniel Merkel was equal to the task. Shots continued to be tough to come by until the half hour mark, when USAO started to apply pressure. The Drovers took their second shot of the half in the 33rd minute, and a little less than four minutes later, USAO opened the scoring. Telmo Lertxundi took a pass from Llewellyn Evans and beat MACU's Liam Ward to give USAO the 1-0 lead. In the waning moments of the first half, Evans doubled the lead, converting a pass from Jack Bancroft and at the half, USAO led 2-0.
Both teams missed chances in the opening moments of the second half, and in the 69th minute, Bjarne Deraeve tallied an unassisted goal to push the lead to 3-0, but seconds later Tiuri Schieving got the Evangels on the board. Schieving converted a service from Rai Ramus on a set piece from the left side to pull MACU back within two, but Lertxundi scored - again from Evans - in the 85th minute to put the game away and USAO took the win 4-1.
Merkel made two saves and allowed one goal in the win, and Ward allowed four goals and made four stops for MACU in the loss. Both keepers played the full 90 minutes.
MACU will continue their season on Saturday in Muskogee, Oklahoma, when they take on the Bacone College Warriors (0-3, 0-3 SAC) at 11 a.m.
