HOUSTON – University of Nevada, Las Vegas scored in the 58
th minute of the match to take down HBU soccer, 1-0, in the Western Athletic Conference matchup on Sunday night at Sorrels Field.
"Tough loss tonight," head coach
Steve Jones commented. "It's hard to find words to make the boys feel better in these situations. The work rate was really high. Defensively we shut down their best player and that led to us getting into the attack more often. You're never happy when you lose a match, you look back at all the things that went wrong and everything you did right and you go out the next week to try to make it better for the next game. We did a lot of things right in this game we just have to find a way to finish our chances."
HBU (4-10-1, 2-6-0 WAC) had many chances but couldn't get past UNLV (6-9-1, 4-2-1 WAC). In the 25
th minute of the match freshman forward
Malik Key was inches away from getting it past Enrique Adame as he headed the ball to the far post from a cross, but resulted in a goal kick.
Again, the Huskies nearly missed, this time from the head of freshman forward
Justin Martin as he out jumped his defender in the box, but it hit the side netting resulting in a goal kick in the 55
th minute. Two minutes later, James Drye served the ball from the left side of the field to Memo Diaz. He hit a right footed side-volley to the far post to beat sophomore goalkeeper
Chance Pope to give UNLV a 1-0 lead. In the 78
th minute, Pope called upon his teammate to clear a shot off of the line to keep the deficit at one.
Key and junior midfielder Marc-Anthone led the Huskies with two shots on goal each. Pope had four saves on the night and had one goal against. HBU had one team save.
UNLV was led offensively by Danny Musovski who tallied two shots on goal. Adame was asked to make six saves to keep the clean sheet.
"I and the staff were proud of the boys for their efforts tonight. The boys deserved a better result than the loss. With two regular season games left we will get to work on preparing for UIW and what we need to do to get a win keeping us in the ract to make the WAC tournament," Jones said.
The Huskies will be home for the final time of the season at Sorrels Field on Sunday to take on Western Athletic Conference member Incarnate Word at 7 p.m.
