🆚 Liberty University
📆 Sunday, October 5, 2025
⏰ 6 pm CT
🏟️ Osborne Stadium – Lynchburg, Virginia
📈 LIVE STATS
📺 ESPN+
Houston Christian University takes on Liberty University on Sunday evening at Osborne Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia in the finale of a season-long five-match road stretch. The Huskies will be looking to get back on track after a Thursday night loss in Evansville to Southern Indiana.
HCU was stunned by three first half goals in Thursday night's match, two before the half hour, and never recovered in a 4-1 defeat.
The Screaming Eagles broke through in the 20th minute as an errant HCU pass in the back third was picked off by Tony Murphy who fed Evan Cvorovic 10 yards in front of the goal for the score and a 1-0 lead. The margin doubled not four minutes later, as a Will Kirchhofer led a ball to Ahiro Nakamae down the left side, and his cross into the box found Murphy in nearly the same spot for a left-footed blast past
Alex Aitken and a 2-0 lead for the hosts.
USI would push the lead to three just over three minutes before the intermission and added a fourth goal just after the hour mark. The Huskies would finally find the back of the net in the 71st minute when a cross into the box was clattered around and found the feet of
Ryan Okerayi. His shot was blocked but trickled to
Joby Reid who cranked in the rebound to break the ice for the Huskies.
The Huskies put up 24 shots, with 10 on target and had 10 corner chances to just four for the hosts.
Reid's goal was his second of the season while
Okerayi chipped in his first helper of the campaign for the Huskies, now 5-3-1 overall and 0-1-1 in OVC play.
Ryan Pratt is now in his ninth season as Head Coach of the Huskies, his 12
th season overall with the program.
Okerayi leads the club with 10 points coming on a team-high five goals, having put 12 of his 20 total shots on goal thus far for a .600 SOG%.
D'Alessandro Herrera and
Joby Reid each have two goals for the Huskies, while Reid leads the team in assists with three.
Nico Kross, Ron Pressler and
Ben Thirkill each had two.
Okerayi is fifth in the OVC in points and is tied for the league lead in goals scored. The Huskies have had seven players hit the back of the net this season and have a .471 SOG% as a team.
HCU has two players in the top 10 for shots per game in the aforementioned trio of
Okerayi, Herrera and
Reid, each at two or more.
Reid is also tied for eighth in the OVC in assists with three, while
Kross, Pressler and
Thirkill sit just outside the top ten with a pair of helpers each.
Aitken has four clean sheets and is tied for second in the league. He is now third in the league in goals allowed average at 1.00 per. The senior from Great Barford, England continues to climb the career leaderboards at HCU, with the victory over UTRGV tying him for first all-time in victories at 21 with
Christopher Dodd. He is part of a trio of keepers with over 20 wins, and is also one of just three to amass over 200 saves, as he now the all-time leader with 263.
The Huskies and Flames have met four times with Liberty leading the series 2-0-2, all four matches coming since the two teams joined the OVC in 2023. Last year's two meetings featured one goal in total, as the Flames won 1-0 in Houston before a 0-0 stalemate in Virginia.
The Flames are led by veteran head coach Kelly Findlay, who is now in his seventh and final campaign at the helm of Liberty after announcing his retirement earlier last week. Findley has been a head coach since 1999, with stints at Mars Hill, Butler and North Carolina State prior to his time in Lynchburg.
Liberty comes into the game sitting tied for first in the early going of the OVC slate, having won their first two matches. The Flames defeated UIW on Thursday night 2-1 to push their overall mark to 6-2-2 on the season.
Jayden Ramos and Kai Tamashiro lead the offensive attack with four goals and four assists each, while Elijah John and Sam Farmer each have three goals and three assists for the Flames, who average 2.7 goals per match, second in the OVC. Tyler Beck has been solid in the pipes, starting all 10 matches while making 27 saves.
HCU returns to Fondren Road on October 9 when it hosts Eastern Illinois University at 7 pm in the first of a pair of matches that weekend.
The Huskies will face Western Illinois University on Sunday at 3:30 pm as part of a doubleheader with the women, who tangle with rival University of the Incarnate Word in Southland Conference action at 1 pm.
#DawgsUp
