OKLAHOMA CITY – A shorthanded No. 20 Mid-America Christian men's soccer team battled tooth and nail with Southwestern Christian with first place in the Sooner Athletic Conference being on the line, but the Evangels fell in a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat at Evangel Field on Tuesday night.

SCORING SUMMARY

• 2^nd Half
  • SCU – 49:36 – Goal: Jackson Kim (1), Assist: Muhammad Bilal – SCU 1, MACU 0

MATCH SUMMARY

• The two top defensive teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference played to a scoreless stalemate through the first half with neither team getting a lot of great offensive opportunities in the first 45 minutes. The best opportunity for either team came in the fifth minute when Rodrigo Albuquerque's shot from the left side of the box was saved, marking the only shot on-goal in the period.
• Southwestern Christian took advantage of its best opportunity of the entire match in the 49^th minute. After a foul was called on the Evangels about 30 yards out of the box. Off the free kick, SCU's Jackson Kim received the cross on the right side of the box and put a pass over to Muhammad Bilal near the left post. Bilal headed the pass back over to Kim breaking back toward the right post and punched in the point-blank shot to give the Eagles the lead.
• MACU's best opportunity at an equalizer came less than a minute later when Albuquerque blasted a shot from the left side that was saved by SCU goalkeeper Santiago Esparza and then followed it up with another save on Mason Gonzalez's follow-up off the rebound, keeping the Evangels off the board.
• The Evangels were unable to put another shot on-target for the remainder of the match as SCU escaped with the 1-0 victory.

MATCH NOTES

• Even though SCU came away with the win, the Evangels were able to outshoot Southwestern Christian 12-9 in the matchup with both teams placing three shots on-goal.
• Sooner Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week Endri Copa actually led MACU's offensive efforts with three shots while Albuquerque placed two of the Evangels' three on-target shots.
• It was the fifth time in the last six matches that MACU lost to Southwestern Christian since the 2017 season. The last time the two teams met, Mid-America Christian came away with a dominant 6-3 victory in the NCCAA Central Region Championship on Nov. 22, 2019.
• Mid-America Christian was shutout for the first time in 16 matches this season.
• With the loss, Mid-America Christian drops to second in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings. The Evangels could still lock up a share of the SAC regular season title, but would need a win on Friday on-top of an Eagles loss to Wayland Baptist on Saturday.

NEXT UP

• Mid-America Christian will wrap up the regular season on the road on Friday as the Evangels will head to Goodwell, Okla. for a 3 p.m. matchup with Oklahoma Panhandle State.