Press Release
The Utah State Eastern men’s soccer team lost to the Wester Wyoming Mustangs 4-3 in their home opener on Tuesday. Early errors and mistakes despite holding possession of the ball for most of the game became costly for USU Eastern in the end.
A mistake on defense by USU Eastern allowed the Mustangs’ Josh Abplanalp to score in the first ten minutes of the game.
Toward the end of the first, USU Eastern’s Luke Madsen, with the assist from Micah Hammond, scored a goal to tie the game
The Mustang’s opened the second half with a goal by Danny Becerra in the 47th minute.
However, USU Eastern responded eight minutes later with another goal by Madsen with an assist from Jojea Kwizera.
Later in the period, Kwizera scored an unassisted goal to take the 3-2 lead heading into the home stretch of the game.
In the final minutes of the game, USU Eastern gave up two more goals to Western Wyoming and could not come back, giving the Mustangs the win.
USU Eastern’s head coach said after the game that the mistakes and the missed opportunities is what held his team back from winning the game.
“We held the majority in possession but we gave up way to many easy opportunities to the other team to which they capitalized,” Bennett said.
Sophomore goal keeper Austin Munoz was in net for USU Eastern for all 90 minutes of the game and tallied eight saves.
Leading the Eagles in scoring was Madsen, who finished with two goals off of three shots on goal.
Sophomore Xavier Smith said that chemistry and unity on the field is something that he believes his team learned from the loss to help them going forward into this weekend’s games.
“We need to come together more as a team and some players are still trying to learn junior college soccer. We need to start trusting each other more in our passing and communicate better on the field,” said Smith.
This weekend, the team will travel to Grand Junction, Colo. to play Colorado Mesa University’s club team along with a scrimmage against Mesa’s varsity soccer team.
Fans can follow the Eagles all season long on Facebook at Utah State Eastern Athletics and on Twitter at twiter.com/usueathletics.