🆚 University of Southern Indiana
📆 Sunday, November 2, 2025
⏰ 1 pm CT
🏟️ Sorrels Field – Houston, Texas
📈 LIVE STATS
🗒️ GAME PROGRAM
Houston Christian University finishes off a three-match homestand when it hosts University of Southern Indiana in a Sunday matinee. The game marks the finale of the 2025 regular season and is "Senior Day" for the Huskies, who will recognize its five outgoing student athletes (
Alex Aitken,
D'Alessandro Herrera,
Jireh Oyebamiji,
Sebastian Rodriguez and
Jordan Santa Cruz) with a short ceremony prior to the 1 pm kick-off at Sorrels Field.
HCU secured a spot in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the second straight season on Thursday night after playing to a hard-fought scoreless draw against Liberty University. The two teams engaged in a defensive slugfest from the outset, with neither team willing to budge in the second meeting between the schools this season.
Both squads had several solid first half chances before the defenses got even more stingy after intermission. In the second frame, Aitken would turn away Leo Conneh in the 70th minute, and parried away a shot from Sam Farner in the 81st to keep things deadlocked. HCU got one last good look in the 88th minute, but
Cezar Onut's strong effort went just wide left of the woodwork.
HCU is now 9-5-2 overall and 4-3-2 in the OVC in Head Coach
Ryan Pratt's ninth season at the helm and 12th season overall with the program. The Huskies sit in third place overall in the league standings and second in their pod, still two-points behind Liberty with the one game left in the league race.
The winners of each pod earn first-round byes in the six-team conference tournament field. Beginning on November 9 in St. Charles, Missouri, this year's tournament will be hosted by Lindenwood after being hosted the previous two seasons at SIUE. Lindenwood captured the OVC regular season title and top seed in the tournament after a 1-1 home draw with Eastern Illinois on Thursday evening.
Heading into the final day of the regular season, four of the six spots in the field have been locked up (Lindenwood, Liberty, HCU and Eastern Illinois), with Western Illinois, SIUE and USI battling for the final two spots. Lindenwood currently sits atop the league table and the other pod, while the Huskies can still win their pod with a victory over USI combined with a loss or draw by Liberty at Incarnate Word on Sunday in San Antonio.
Ryan Okerayi leads the club with 15 points and seven goals having put 22 of his 38 shots on goal thus far for a team-best .579 SOG%. He now sits in seventh place all-time with 19 goals, and is third in the league in goals and tied for fifth in points.
The Huskies have now had nine players hit the back of the net this season as
Ben Thirkill's goal against UIW opened his collegiate account.
Joby Reid is second on the squad in points with 14 and paces the Huskies with six assists, tied for third in the OVC. He has four goals on the season, tied for second on the club with
D'Alessandro Herrera
Herrera's two-assist game against Eastern Illinois was the third in his career and his assist against UIW gave him 19 for his career to move into a tie with George Sangira for fourth place all-time. Herrera and
Ben Thirkill each have three assists for the Huskies while
Ron Pressler and
Nico Kross each have a pair as the club has registered 22 assists on 21 goals thus far on the campaign.
Alex Aitken clean sheet against Liberty was the eighth of the season, tying his personal single-season best set last year. He leads the league in shutouts, goals against average (0.81) and save percentage (.840), while ranking fourth in total saves (68) and saves per game (4.25).
The senior from Great Barford, England now has 25 victories for his career, ranking as the all-time leader since the program was restarted in 2006. Aitken also sits atop the leaderboard in shutouts with 20 for his career, passing former keeper and former Head Coach Benny Agosto, and he now needs just three saves to become the first keeper in school history to surpass 300.
The Huskies and Screaming Eagles are meeting for the second time this season and fourth time overall. USI took a 4-1 victory in Evansville on October 2 for its first win in the all-time series, which is now knotted at 1-1-1.
Southern Indiana is led by Mat Santoro, now in his 16th season at the helm. The Eagles are currently 2-9-5 on the season and 1-3-5 in conference action after Thursday night's 2-2 draw with Incarnate Word in San Antonio, and are still in the hunt for a postseason berth.
Sophomore forward David Davila leads the offense. He has 13 points and is tied for fourth in the league in goals with six. Freshmen Tony Murphy and Edin Cvorovic are tied for sixth in the league with four assists each. Freshman goalkeeper Jacob English is first in the OVC in saves per game at 5.07 and is third in the league in total saves with 76.
HCU will learn its conference tournament opponent following the results of Sunday's final day of league play. In addition to the Liberty/UIW matchup, other fixtures around the OVC include regular-season champ Lindenwood at Western Illinois while two-time defending champion SIUE is at Eastern Illinois.
#DawgsUp
