ROLLA, Mo. – Fresh off its first win of the season on Sunday, Missouri S&T's men's soccer team returns to the road this week as it heads to the eastern stretches of the Great Lakes Valley Conference to play a pair of games.
The Miners open the weekend trip Friday in Evansville, Ind., when they take on Southern Indiana in a 7:30 p.m. game, then head to Louisville for a Sunday tilt against Bellarmine at 2:30 p.m. (Eastern time).
S&T dropped its first three games of the year, including a heartbreaking 1-0 loss at Rockhurst when the Hawks scored with just under two minutes to play in regulation time, but rebounded with a come-from-behind 3-1 win Sunday over William Jewell at the S&T Soccer Field.
After spotting the Cardinals a goal in the first half, the Miners tied it on
Eduardo Abichabki (Sao Jose do Rio Pardo, Brazil/Colegio Unigrau)'s goal late in the first half. With exactly 19 minutes to play,
Felipe Andrade (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) scored the first of his two goals that he tallied 2:15 apart to give the Miners the victory.
Andrade enters the week leading the Miners in scoring with three goals and six points, while
Austin Parks (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) has two goals and an assist for five points.
Nick Posey (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville) saw all of the action in goal over the weekend, making two saves on Sunday and lowering his goals against average to 1.33.
Southern Indiana opened its season with three straight wins – winning by a combined score of 10-2 -- but fell in double overtime Sunday to McKendree 1-0 to bring an 3-1 overall record and 1-1 conference mark into the weekend.
Kasper Bjoro leads the Screaming Eagles with three goals and an assist for seven points, while Braiden Acton has five points on a goal and three assists. Goalkeeper Adam Zehme has seen the bulk of the action in goal for USI and has allowed only one goal in 353-plus minutes of playing time; the goal was the overtime winner for McKendree on Sunday.
The Miners have blanked the Screaming Eagles in each of the last six meetings between the teams since USI's last win over S&T on the final day of the 2007 season. S&T took a 1-0 decision last October in Rolla on an Abichabki goal early in the second half.
Bellarmine, who hosts Drury Friday, is 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC after bouncing back from a loss at McKendree to beat Illinois Springfield 2-1 Sunday. Beau Laufer, who leads the Knights with two goals on the season, scored the game-winner in the 66
th minute in the victory over UIS.
Zach Pogue has a 0.48 goals against average and seven saves in goal for the Knights, who have won the last two meetings from S&T. A year ago, Bellarmine won 1-0 with a goal in the 82
nd minute of play.
