Tampa, Fla. - The Missouri State Bears men's soccer team has handed South Florida (7-1-5, 3-1-1) its first loss of the season with a brilliant 3-1 performance on Friday night in an American Conference match-up.
The Bears (4-5-2, 2-3-0) came out firing, creating blistering opportunities to attack. In the fifth minute, senior James Jennings utilized an assist by classmate Ollie Bate and junior Alex Matthews to find the back of the net and take the lead, 1-0.
"It felt amazing personally, and then also as a team scoring early just feels like it gets us going and kick-starts the momentum on which we want play, which I felt like we improved on throughout the game," Jennings stated post-game.
The Bulls took advantage of a penalty kick in the 20th minute to equalize the scoreboard, 1-1.
As the second half kicked off, confident aggression aided by superb defense made it hard for South Florida to get the ball. In the 62nd minute, senior Fumiya Shiraishi dribbled the ball masterfully past the Bulls' defenders, and then sophomore Victor Wachowicz was right where he needed to be to score the Bears' second goal of the night.
"Fumi set it up for me on a platter, and all I had to do was tap it in, but I am very happy for the team and glad I could chip in with the goal," said Wachowicz after his first goal as a Bear.
However, the Bears weren't done yet. Just eight minutes later junior Diego Real broke past the Bulls' defense to find the back of the net with a beautiful shot to the bottom left of the goal to push the Bears ahead to a 3-1 scoreline.
"I am really, really happy because it was a big win after a bit of a slump that we've been in, and I am happy personally and for the team because we were kind of suffering. It was nice to get the goal to seal the win that we needed to put us back on the map," stated Real after the game.
The Bears attempted nine total shots with five on goal, to the Bulls' 11 shots of which only two were on goal. The Bears tallied three corner kicks to the Bulls' seven.
Head Coach Michael Seabolt was very proud of his team turning the tables on the season with this win.
"I am just super happy for the guys as we've played really well, and we've been deserving of some good results and tonight we finally did. South Florida is a very good team, and you can see why they were undefeated, but our guys were more than up to the challenge. We're deserving winners and now we just stay on task and get ready for Drake on Tuesday."
The Bears will host Drake next at home at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 6:00 p.m. Admission to all home games is free all season.
Coach Seabolt talked about what's on offer at Tuesday's game. "We have an amazing night planned on Tuesday. We play Drake at 6:00 p.m. with Sporting KC coming down to Springfield and then at 8:30 p.m. we will be hosting a Springfield Public Schools matchup with Parkview and Central High schools playing. This is our second annual high school derby on campus which is a great way to promote MoState and our local soccer community, so a big thank you to Josh Scott the Springfield Public Schools Athletic Director for working with us on the event and Patrick Ransdell and all our staff at Missouri State for working together to make it possible."
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