SPRINGFIELD – The Missouri State men's soccer team (3-4-2, 1-3) fell 2-1 on Friday night, surrendering a late goal to American Conference frontrunner FAU in a hard-fought match.

Both the Bears and Owls showed fight with grit as the second half unfolded with both teams working to break an early 1-1 deadlock. In the 74th minute, FAU's Mamadou Diarra found a way to blast a goal from outside of the box to take the pivotal lead.

The Bears and the Owls opened the match on even footing, working to create opportunities towards the goal. The Owls found the back of the net from outside of the box to get on the board first in the 34th minute.

Just over 10 minutes later, the Bears retaliated with some magic of their own. Sophomores Fionn Mooney and Daniel Souza set up senior Diego Real for a stunning header, tying up the scoreboard at 1-1.

The Bears attempted seven total shots with three on goal, to the Owl's 10 shots of which six were on goal. The Bears tallied five corner kicks to the Owl's three.

"I thought in spells the boys definitely showed a bounce back from the last game, there are definitely positives that we can take into future games," said MSU captain Alex Matthews. "We must keep our heads up, there's plenty of plenty of games to go and we have to start picking up points fast but I'm confident in this group, there is resilience and quality in it. If will keep doing the right things in training and executing in matches we should we should start to see some better results in the future but we're going to keep working hard as it's a big month ahead."

"I thought we did a lot of really good things and then we got away from them," said Bears head coach Michael Seabolt. "We just have to stay on course. But we're going to hold our heads up and we got to get after it for the next game at Creighton."

The Bears will face Creighton next with a neutral-site match in Kansas City, Mo. on Wednesday, October 8, at 6:00 p.m.