During the first weekend in September, USAO soccer celebrated Alumni Day. After watching USAO’s women’s soccer claim victory in a 6-1 match against Ottawa, USAO’s men’s team suited up with a similar goal in mind. USAO came into the match with a 2-1-1 overall record on the season, with their first conference match coming up later in September against JBU. The Braves came in with an overall record of 0-1-0.
McLaughlin Field had fans settling into the shade as the match begin. The back-and-forth style of the game ended with only two goals on the board.
“At times, we look really good and then at other times we lose a lot. I don’t want to attribute it to youth or newcomers, but it’s not knowing how to play for 90 minutes. If we figure it out we have a chance to be really good, and if not, we learned valuable lessons tonight. You know with three minutes left in the game, we just got to do better there,” Jimmy Hampton, USAO head men’s soccer coach, said after Saturday night’s game.
The match began with a few quick fouls and a corner kick for USAO, and before the game hit the ten-minute mark Justin Croke, a senior forward, scored the first goal of the game. Croke was assisted by Stefan Savkovic, a junior defender.
After the first half concluded, USAO had seven shots while Ottawa’s goalie, Marko De SA Faira, tallied three saves. In comparison, the Braves put up one shot to allow USAO’s goalie, Angel Diaz, to have one save.
Tensions rose as the second half ticked by and USAO remained ahead 1-0. By the time the final whistle was called, USAO recorded 15 fouls while the Braves had 16 total. Three yellow cards were issued in the second half, with two being handed to Drovers and one to Ottawa. In the 49th minute of play, Darko Borisavljevic earned his yellow card, followed by Stijn Iding in the 56th minute. Ottawa’s Santiago Sanchez earned his in the 59th minute.
As the final few minutes of the game came into view, the crowd thought USAO had the game secured when Sanchez scored the tying goal with less than four minutes left in the game. Sanchez was assisted by Patrick Wyatt.
When the clock ran out, USAO and Ottawa ended in a 1-1 tie, changing their records to 2-1-2 and 0-1-1 respectively.
Hampton said that the team’s mentality isn’t “Can we win the game on Monday?” Instead, it is, “Can we be better than we were the day before?” Hampton continued his thought to share that his team has gotten better every day since they began practice in August, and he said he believes that they are close to being above .500.
“We are going to trust the process and we will probably have some bumps like tonight” Hampton said to end the post-game interview.
The Drovers will suit back up Monday, Sept. 4 at 2:30 p.m. to battle Our Lady of the Lake University at McLaughlin Field.
Emily Loughridge is a third-year communcation major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
