Missouri State Bears Fall At St Louis
November 19, 2009 by Ole · 2 Comments
Missouri State Bears, Kyle Windmuller
St Louis University Billikens – 2
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Missouri State men’s soccer team (12-5-2) fell to Saint Louis University (15-6-0) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in front of 1,377 fans at Robert R. Hermann Stadium tonight by a final of 2-1. It was the second time in school history that the Billikens knocked the Bears out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round.
The Bears applied early offensive pressure with Johannes Demarzi recording two of the three shots on goal in the first eight minutes. But the Billikens would get on the board first. After a couple of fouls near midfield, Tim Ream would take a free kick from about 45 yards out. His serve into the box found the head of James Dice, who beat Alex Riggs for a 1-0 Billikens lead.
In the 17th minute, Missouri State defender Ryan Hennessy was called for a foul in the box after a battle with Stephen Bortolon. SLU’s leading scorer Mike Roach would take the penalty kick and convert to put the Billikens up 2-0.
At the half, Saint Louis held a 2-0 lead despite Missouri State outshooting the Billikens, 12-3. Edin Sabic tallied five of the Bears’ shots. Saint Louis earned two corners to the Bears one.
The Bears would get on the board just five minutes into the second half. Jordan Hoffman would steal the ball at the top of the box and feed it ahead to Heath Melugin. Melugin drilled a high shot off the bottom of the crossbar and in to cut the deficit to 2-1. The goal was Melugin’s sixth of the year.
The Bears outshot Saint Louis 22-5 in the match. Nine of the Bears’ shots were on goal, forcing SLU’s Ross Kaufman to make eight saves. Sabic had six shots and Melugin added four for Missouri State. The Bears earned three corners to the Billikens’ four.
“Our guys battled out there tonight,” said head coach Jon Leamy. “You could tell that they wanted this game, but it’s tough to come back from a 2-0 hole against a good team like Saint Louis. They (SLU) are a well-coached team.”
Missouri State is now 0-3 in the NCAA Tournament (1997 at SLU, 0-2; 1999 at UAB, 1-2). Saint Louis improves to 9-0-3 all-time against the Bears with all matches occurring in St. Louis. The Bears 12 wins are the most since 2005 (12-4-2) and is the sixth highest win total in school history.
Congratulations to the Bears on a great season!
The officiating in this game was absolutely pathetic. The ref didn’t have the guts enough to make calls against the home team. The PK call against the Bears was totally bogus; it was given to the undersized player. MSU totally outplayed and outclassed SLU and got nothing to show because the ref was too scared to do his job.