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HOUSTON – Senior Marc-Anthone converted a penalty kick in the third minute and HBU took a 1-0 lead into the half but UT Rio Grande Valley responded with three goals in the second half to hand the Huskies a 3-1 loss in men's soccer action at Sorrels Field on Thursday evening.
 
An early handball called against UT Rio Grande Valley (6-6-3, 3-4-2 WAC) in the third minute set HBU (5-9-0, 2-7-0 WAC) up with a penalty kick. Marc-Anthone took the kick, beating UTRGV keeper Esa Aalto who guessed left but the kick was mostly dead on. The Huskies out-shot the Vaqueros 6-3 in the first half, putting a second shot on goal at the 8:35 mark with a header by Dominick Faletto that was kept out of the net by the UTRGV back line.
 
UTRGV came out and attempted 10 shots in the first 20 minutes of the second period, finally finding the net on the 10^th shot of the period when Ilias Kosmidis coming up with a loose ball in the box coming off a header by Guillermo Martinez and firing past HBU goalkeeper Harrison Veith in the 65^th minute.
 
Gianluca Natera put a shot on goal for the Huskies at the 67:37 mark, putting a laser on goal from about 25 yards out. Just over a minute later, a blocked shot attempt by Arthur Rogers in the 69^th minute went high in the air and came down at the feet of Jaakko Hietikko who quickly turned and scored the Vaqueros second goal of the match. Natera had another shot go wide before UTRGV extended its lead to 3-1 on a goal by Angel Lopez in the 76^th minute.
 
Marc-Anthone's goal was his second of the year and the fourth of his career. Natera led HBU with five shots while Dominick Faletto had a pair of attempts. UTRGV out-shot HBU 21-11 for the match with both teams earning five corner kicks. In goal, Harrison Veith finished with three saves in falling to 4-5-0 on the year.
 
"I thought tonight was a microcosm of our season as a whole," said head coach Ryan Pratt. "We looked good the first half and didn't really find any rhythm or any kind of possession the second half. It's kind of the way our season's gone where we play well for a half and poor for a half. At this level, you can't play that sporadically in halves and expect to be successful. This has happened before and we've got to be sure we fix it moving forward. We've got to get back to the drawing board and we've got to be better."
 
The Huskies will close out the 2017 season on Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. when they host Incarnate Word for senior night.