Men’s Soccer Suffers Season’s First Loss

Steven Petrov
The Paw Print

The ASU “grizzlies” played their third game of the week on Sunday September 15th against the FHSU “tigers”. Having won their first 2 official games of the season against South Dakota School of Mines (2:0) and the overtime 2:1 victory on Saturday against Dallas Baptist University, ASU Men’s soccer team wanted to set a record in the school’s history of most consecutive wins by winning on Sunday.
The game started slow for the “grizzlies,” and they couldn’t find their rhythm of play in the first 15 minutes. Unfortunately for Coach Busen and his players, the “tigers” scored first through a combination play in the middle of the field. After a misunderstanding in ASU’s midfield, FHSU got possession of the ball, eventually leading to an assist by Diego Cabral to Ricardo Yeverino, who scored what later would turn out to be the winning goal. Coach Busen made a couple of substitutions after the goal that really turned out to be beneficial for the team. ASU started their game with possessing the ball and creating some chances in front of FHSU’s goal. However, the score stayed 1:0. At half time, being outshot 9 to 4, the “grizzlies” had to come out hungry for goals and determined to win. The performance that ASU Men’s soccer team put on throughout the second half of the game differed significantly from the one in the first half. The green outshot their opponent 11 to 4 and controlled the rhythm of the game, creating multiple goal opportunities in front of FHSU’s goal.
Fabian Omana and Andrew Martinez were the two ASU players with most amount of shots, respectively (4 total and 3 on target) and (3 total and 1 on target). Despite the numerous substitutions and changes that coach Busen made in his team, the “grizzlies” were unlucky and were not able to score an equalizer. After the game coach Busen talked about the great play and performance that everyone put forth and about the frustration by losing a game that you know you deserved to win. Winning 2 out of the 3 games this weekend ASU Men’s soccer team is having the best start of the season in the program’s history. Next week the “grizzlies” have an away game against Fort Lewis College in Durango, where they will have to bring nothing less than their “A” game.