KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Freshman forward
Malik Key's goal in the 86th minute broke a tie as HBU took down UMKC, 2-1, for the Huskies' first Western Athletic Conference win of the season Sunday night at Durwood Statium.
"I am extremely proud of these young men," head coach
Steve Jones commented after the win. "The boys worked hard all night. It's never easy to get wins on the road and UMKC has a good team. The boys fought hard defensively all night long."
It only took two minutes into the second half for junior midfielder Marc Anthone to find freshman forward
Erick Aragon for a goal to give the Huskies (3-5-1, 1-1-0 WAC) a 1-0 lead over UMKC (2-6-0, 1-1-0 WAC).
"Our first goal came from some very good heads up play from Kenny taking a quick throw deep in our attacking third, finding Marc open in the box," Jones said. Marc played a ball into the six box where there was a big group of players, Erick managed to get to the ball and poke it into the back of the net. Unfortunately not too long after the goal we had a missed clearance and they capitalized on it."
Pandelis Popgeorgiev scored his first goal of the season for the Roos in the 49th minute, with an assist from Luke Gilsinger.
The Huskies asked sophomore goalkeeper
Chance Pope to make four saves to keep the win after letting one get past him. On the other end, Key had two of the Huskies' six shots on goal.
Popgeogiev had two of UMKC's five shots on goal while Filippo Errico took home the loss after making four saves and two goals against. UMKC led the stats in corner kicks, 6-5, and total shots, 12-10.
"I felt that we played one of our more complete games tonight both defensively and then creating some great chances to score," Jones said. "This was a great effort from everyone tonight. Now we have to prepare for a home game on Thursday against a tough GCU."
The Huskies will return home to Sorrels Field Thursday for another WAC matchup against Grand Canyon at 7 p.m., before traveling to Seattle, Washington, Friday to take on Seattle at 9 p.m. CDT.
