USU Eastern Press Release
PRICE – Utah State Eastern men’s soccer lost its final game of the regular season to the 14th-ranked Salt Lake Community College Bruins 2-0 on Friday.
In front of their home crowd, the Eagles made it tough for the Bruins to replicate previous results in the earlier games of the year in Salt Lake. Earlier this season, the Bruins defeated the Eagles 5-0 and 5-1 at their place.
“Up in Salt Lake, we played panicked, lazy and sloppy. Today, they scored one good goal on us and we had some good opportunities while playing with a lot of guys missing,” said USU Eastern head coach Ammon Bennett.
Both teams started off very physical in the first half with Salt Lake with the Bruins scoring their first goal of the game in the 12′ minute in an unusual way.
USU Eastern keeper Israel Davila Haleman thought there was a foul called and put the ball down on the ground and Salt Lake’s Esteban Celis quickly capitalized on the error to score the goal.
“It was just an honest mistake and it happens in games. It ended up being unfortunate for us,” said USU Eastern freshman Max Garrett.
Almost 11 minutes later, the Bruins ent up 2-0 with a goal from Aaron Martinez that was assisted by Innocent Twishime. After that second goal by Salt Lake, both teams played very hard but neither team could find the back of the net.
The Eagles had a couple of good opportunities off of free kicks and other sets but were just short of getting on the board.
“Salt Lake is very good but they didn’t dominate us today, we made the mistakes that allowed the loss,” said Bennett.
Friday’s game didn’t end the way they wanted but the Eagles could tell that there was a lot of growth as a team since the last time they played the Bruins.
“Today, we played more as a team and we had more confidence and chemistry,” said Garrett.
Up next for the Eagles is the Region XVIII Tournament in Salt Lake next weekend. The Eagles will take on the Bruins again with the time and date to be announced at a later time.
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- Photos by Jeff Barrett
