The Peacock men's soccer team headed down south to Shawnee, Okla. on Thursday evening for a non-conference matchup with the Oklahoma Baptist Bison. Upper Iowa trailed in the second half, but came back to tie the game in the 66th minute. However, the home team had the last say as the Bison scored with nine minutes to play in regulation to earn the 3-2 victory. With the loss, UIU drops to 5-7 on the season, while OBU improves to 5-7-1.
"We lost to a good Oklahoma Baptist team tonight," said Peacock Head Coach
Willie McGowan. "We weren't able to do enough on both sides of the ball as a collective unit to push our way to the win."
Upper Iowa got the scoring started Thursday night, when Italo Martin Soares took a shot from the top of the box, and the ball connected with the post then bounced in for the goal. Soares has now tallied four goals on the season, tying him for the team lead. Oklahoma Baptist answered in the 27th minute when Alejandro Castillo tied the match at one. The Bison held a 9-4 advantage in the first half, and earned a 4-2 edge in corner kicks.
The home team struck first in the second half, as Thiago Dos Santos scored in the 59th minute to give OBU the lead. The Bison did a great job of controlling the ball in certain situations, and put a lot of pressure on the Peacocks defense as the game moved along.
The Peacocks found the equalizer in the 66th minute, when
Ruairidh Crawford took a pass from Soares and scored to tie his teammate with the team lead in goals (4). Despite trailing in shot attempts by a wide margin, UIU was looking for the win or to possibly send the game to overtime. However, OBU had other plans.
David Estrada won the game for the Bison in the 81st minute, when he was able to fight in the middle of the box after a cross. Oklahoma Baptist led 3-2, and would hold on the rest of the way. For the match, the home team led in shot attempts, 21-9, including an 8-3 advantage in shots placed on goal.
Connor Rortvedt takes the loss in net, but tallied five more saves in the process.
"We scored a couple of good goals, but we are disappointed that we didn't score more or limit Oklahoma Baptist to fewer chances on our goal," added McGowan. "Saturday's game now has a little more riding on it and hopefully we'll see a positive reaction after this loss."
Upper Iowa will take Friday off and then get back on the field Saturday, Oct. 21 as they head to Bethany, Okla. to match up with Southern Nazaren at 12 p.m. to close out the non-conference week.
