USU Eastern Press Release
PRICE – Men’s soccer defeated the Otero Rattlers at home on Saturday 3-2 in overtime.
Coming off to blowout losses to nationally ranked and conference foe Salt Lake, the Eagles were looking to get back on track against non-conference opponent Otero.
USU Eastern came out slow in the first half and were held to only one shot by Otero.
“We came out in the first half and Otero pressed us really hard creates mistakes and we had two mistakes and that put us down 2-0 at halftime,” said USU Eastern Head Coach Ammon Bennett.
The two Otero goals came from Diogo Santos 21′ minute and from Bryson Chiles in the 41′ minute.
After halftime the play got better for the Eagles and got passed the pesky press of the Rattlers.
“In the second half, we had to come out stronger and with more intensity,” said USU Eastern’s Frank DeBry.
The intensity showed in 64′ minute when the DeBry scored a goal off an assist from Jojea Kwizera to cut the lead to 2-1.
“We have to learn to adjust to the press and we definitely did that in the second half,” said Bennett.
Ten minutes later in the second half the Eagles tied the game at 2-2 with a goal coming from Ramon Apricio with an assist by DeBry.
The game would eventually go into overtime where both teams had chances to grab the win.
In 95′ minute of the game, DeBry scored his second goal of the game to give the Eagles the win. Kwizera notched his second assist of the game on the game winning score.
After the game DeBry said he couldn’t have got the final goal to go in without the rest of his squad behind him.
“Before the winning goal, my teammates didn’t put their heads down and they found me open and you have to give them a lot of credit for that,” said DeBry.
His two goals on Saturday give DeBry nine goals on the season, that number ranks him in the top 30 in the country for goals scored.
Saturday’s win over Otero snaps a three-game losing streak for the Eagles as the return to conference play this week.
Up next for the men’s soccer team is two home games this weekend with Snow College.
Friday’s game will begin at 3 p.m. and Saturday’s game will start at 1 p.m.
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- Photos by Jeff Barrett
