OKLAHOMA CITY – The No. 15 MACU Men's Soccer team faced a suffocating Southwestern Christian defense in its home regular season finale on Tuesday night as the Evangels and Eagles battled to a 0-0 draw after 90 minutes at the Dill Soccer Field.
 
MATCH SUMMARY

• First Half
  • While both teams struggled to generate much offensive attack early in the first half, Southwestern Christian (5-4-4, 1-2-4 SAC) found itself in a tough situation in the 14^th minute when SCU's Andre Lopes committed a high, hard foul on Francois Geris-Rey that brought out a red card from the official, forcing the Eagles to play with 10-men for the final 77 minutes of the match.
  • Neither team was able to muster any on-target shots until the 32^nd minute when a takeaway by Lincoln Borges in the Mid-America Christian (10-1-4, 5-0-2 SAC) midfield allowed the Eagles attacker to get a long, contested shot off that MACU goalkeeper Claudio Fuentealba made the easy snare to keep the Eagles off the board.
  • Both teams were unable to put another shot on-goal the rest of the half as both teams went into the break with the scoreless draw.
• Second Half
  • Southwestern Christian's only other on-frame chance came in the 57^th minute when Maros Arranz was able to take the ball away down the right sideline and lost a long shot toward the right post, but Fuentealba once again made a relatively easy save to keep it a scoreless game.
  • It appeared as the though Mid-America Christian came up with the game-winner in the 72^nd minute when a short corner played by Enzo Nogue from the right side was played to Geris-Rey at the top right corner of the 18-yard box, relaying it to Josh Macklin toward the middle. The junior midfielder put a strong 24-yard low-liner toward the right post that SCU goalkeeper Enzo Camps made the diving save on. The loose ball caromed to an uncontested Mario Garcia, who punched it into the net. However, the goal was waved off as the Garcia was called for being offside.
  • Macklin and Federico Palacios had a couple of late chances in the final 10 minutes with a pair of long shots, but both players put their attempts just high of goal as SCU survived to grind out the 0-0 draw.

MATCH NOTES

• Even though Mid-America Christian did hold a 9-5 shooting advantage against Southwestern Christian, the Evangels struggled to put shots on-target against the Eagles stingy defense as SCU held a slight 2-1 edge in shots on-goal.
• Josh Macklin was the most effective of MACU's attackers as he attempted four of the Evangels' nine shots to go with the lone shot on-goal.
• Senior goalkeeper Claudio Fuentealba finished with a pair of saves while recording his fifth shutout of the season and the 13^th of his MACU career, moving him into a tie with Austen Parker (2009) for the second-most career clean sheets for a MACU keeper in the NAIA Era (2007-present).
• The result snapped MACU's five-game win streak over SCU. The last time the two teams played to a draw came in the NCCAA Central Region Championship game on Nov. 17, 2017 as the match ended in a 1-1 draw before the Eagles claimed the title with a 4-3 win in the postgame shootout at Cagle Field.
• The result puts the Evangels in a somewhat precarious situation as MACU does still hold the Sooner Athletic Conference lead with 17 points (5-0-2), sitting just a point ahead of Oklahoma City (16, 5-1-1) and two points in-front of John Brown (5-1) with the Golden Eagles facing a huge road contest at Wayland Baptist on Thursday night.

HEAD COACH AARON HOXIE'S ANALYSIS

• "Tough result to take because we are now out of control of our own conference destiny.  This is one of those games where a draw feels like a loss to one team and a win to the other team."
• "We didn't do enough to win the game.  I think that the red card was probably the best thing to happen to them, which is odd to say.  Their intensity and desire increased and ours decreased because we got comfortable.  I also think that forced them to play a certain way, which was tactically smart and we didn't have the technical response as a result.  I do not think we were at our best today and we just showed up to have a kick...and it wasn't good enough."
• "At the end of all of this, however, this result is on me.  I take responsibility for not having the team prepared enough to overcome the situations that we faced today.  We had to play differently than usual, and the guys weren't prepared.  I will get better."

UP NEXT

• Mid-America Christian will look to get back on-track as the Evangels will hit the road for the final two contests of the regular season. MACU will start its road trek down in Waxahachie, Texas on Saturday as the Evangels square off against Nelson for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff at the Nelson Athletic Fields.