SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Liberty 5, Southern Indiana 0
@HCU 1, SIUE 0
Lindenwood 2, @UIW 2
Eastern Illinois 2, @Western Illinois 1
LIBERTY 5, SOUTHERN INDIANA 0
LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Liberty Flames erupted for five goals and recorded their fifth shutout of the season, downing the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles 5-0 Sunday afternoon at Osborne Stadium in an Ohio Valley match.
For the second consecutive game, Liberty used solid defensive play by its backline led by defender Carlos Trott and relentless pressure on the offensive end to come away with a clean sheet. The Flames defeated Eastern Illinois 2-0 at Osborne Stadium on Thursday evening.
OVC-leading goal scorer Michael Huss netted his ninth and 10th goals of 2024 and assisted on two others in the contest for six points. Leo Conneh, Gabe Findley and Sam Farner also scored for the Flames.
Liberty took a 2-0 lead into the halftime. Huss scored the game’s first goal off a failed clearing attempt by Southern Indiana during the third minute and added to their lead during the 22nd minute when Leo Conneh received a crossing pass from Huss and scored.
The Flames tacked on three more in the second half. Huss and Findley netted goals less than four minutes apart during the 65th and 69th minutes.
With back-to-back victories, Liberty moves to 5-2 in the OVC and 7-5-1 overall. Southern Indiana drops to 1-5-1 in conference and 2-12-1 overall.
HCU 1, SIUE 0
HOUSTON - Houston Christian University moved into a tie at the top of the OVC table by clipping SIU-Edwardsville 1-0 in a "Senior Day" barn-burner Sunday afternoon at Sorrels Field. The Huskies moved even with the defending conference champion Cougars in first place with three league matches still left to play in the regular season.
HCU and SIUE locked horns early defensively, settling in while taking a few chances on the offensive end. A shot by the Cougars Stephan Moreira in the 12th minute was handled by Alex Aitken and Robert Gjelaj returned the favor in the 24th on a bicycle kick attempt by Ethan Giwa-McNeil. Giwa-McNeil would attempt another shot in the 40th minute that was also gobbled up by Gjelaj and the two teams would trot off to intermission deadlocked at nil-nil.
The Huskies would come out of the break hot, and earned a penalty just over a minute in when Giwa-McNeil was clipped in the box. Gjelaj was up to the task however, as he swatted away the penalty attempt by D'Alessandro Herrera to keep things scoreless.
That momentum didn't last long, as HCU came right back just two minutes later. A run and give up the side found Ryan Okerayi, who put a move on and had a go with his left, blasting a shot past Gjelaj for the first score of the game, giving the hosts a lead just under four minutes into the second stanza.
The Huskies would take just one shot the rest of the way while fending off the Cougars. Another attempt by Moreira was gloved by Aitken just past the 57-minute mark, and Aitken again came up big with a stop of a long Yasha Schaerer shot in traffic in the 63rd minute. The Cougars would put three more shots off target the rest of the way, as Aitken and the HCU defense stood strong preserve the shutout in the home finale.
Giwa-McNeil had two of HCU's four shots on goal while Okerayi connected on his lone one, garnering his fifth goal of the season to tie for the team-lead. Sam Zeeman and Thomas Wyke each picked up an assist. Aitken made four saves to pick up his fifth clean sheet of the season, all coming in the last eight outings.
Schaerer and Moreira had two shots on goal apiece for SIUE, now 7-4-3 overall and 5-1-1 in OVC play. Robert Gjelaj was strong in the pipes once again for the visitors, three saves and allowing just the lone score.
HCU is now 7-5-3 on the season and 5-1-1 in league play. The Huskies finish off the home slate of the regular season at 5-3-1 overall and will now take to the road for the remaining three matches of conference play. The stretch begins with a trip to the Alamo City next Saturday to take on long-time rival Incarnate Word.
UIW 2, LINDENWOOD 2
SAN ANTONIO - Lindenwood men's soccer (7-5-3, 3-2-2 OVC) ended with a tie on Sunday at Ohio Valley Conference affiliate-member Incarnate Word (4-5-4, 2-2-3 OVC) by a score of 2-2. The Lions led 2-0 before UIW scored two unanswered goals to clinch the tie.
This match in San Antonio was very even across the board with both offenses producing similar results. Lindenwood was out-shot 10-12 on Sunday. The Lions produced seven shots on goal while the Cardinals added eight.
Enzo Gil helped the Lion earn their second straight tie in conference play posting six saves. His six saves in net tied a season-high. It also only marked the seventh time this season he has allowed more than one goal and just the second time in the last six matches. UIW's Alejandro DeLaTorre had four saves in net.
It was a slow start to the match for both teams during the first half as Lindenwood took a 1-0 lead heading into halftime. Lindenwood had just four shots during the first half compared to the eight of UIW. Gil made five of his six saves during the first half.
Off of a free kick by the Lions, Noe Bijou scored his first goal of the season to put the Lions up 1-0 during the 14th minute of play. John Gates bounced the ball to Bijou for the assist who hit a defender with the ball on its way into the net. The rest of the half would remain scoreless.
To open the second half, Ethan Blake scored his team-leading seventh goal during the 56th minute of play to go up 2-0. Blake now ranks second in the OVC in total points with 21 after scoring seven goals and dishing out seven assists this season.
Incarnate Word didn't go down without a fight as the Cardinals scored their first goal during the 62nd minute of play. UIW's Peleg Armendariz scored the first goal for the Cardinals. The equalizer goal came in the 77th minute by Sello Diphoko in the upper right of the net.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 2, WESTERN ILLINOIS 1
MACOMB, Ill. - The Eastern Illinois men's soccer team (2-10-1, OVC 1-6) secured the victory 2-1 to in-state rival Western Illinois (7-8-1, OVC 2-5) on Sunday afternoon in Macomb. This marks the first OVC victory for the Panthers this season.
The Leatherneck offense wasted no time, as Xavier Gagnon found the back of the net in the first five minutes of the contest. The Panthers responded quickly, answering in the 13' minute to tie the game at one apiece. Sebastian Khoury picked up his first goal of the 2024 season off a cross from freshman Jackson Liley.
Eastern found success once again, capitalizing in the offensive zone in the 25' minute. Jackson Liley picked up his second assist of the game, finding Adam Boykin for his first goal of the season to extend the Panther lead to 2-1 heading into the half.
The Eastern Illinois defense stood tall in the second half, keeping Western Illinois out of the net for the remainder of the match. Chad Smith received the start in goal for the Panthers, recording six saves on seven shots on goal.