Eagles Battle Eagles in Regular Season Finale​​​​​​​

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Soccer finishes their first season at the NCAA Division I level since 1994 on Saturday as they travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma to take on Oral Roberts University with a 1pm kickoff.
 
This match has big postseason implications for the Golden Eagles as they try to clinch the regular season title and the number one seed in the Summit League Championships.
 
The Screaming Eagles earned their second victory of the season on Wednesday as the took down St. Thomas University, 2-0. It looked like it was going to be a very defensive standstill in the first half. However, with less than a minute left in the first half, St. Thomas fouled freshman Jackson Mitchell (Newburgh, Indiana) in the box to give USI a penalty kick and the Tommies were given a red card, sending them down to just 10 men. Junior Brian Winkler (Philpot, Kentucky) converted the penalty to send USI into halftime up 1-0. The Eagles continued to pressure the St. Thomas defense, forcing a miscommunication between defender and goalkeeper as the ball rolled into the net for a St. Thomas own goal, putting USI up 2-0 where they would hold out the rest of the game. Mitchell, junior Zach Barton (St. Louis, Missouri), and graduate Nick Faddis (St. Louis, Missouri) all finished with two shots as the Eagles outshot the Tommies 11-7. Junior goalkeeper Alec Meissner (St. Charles, Missouri) finished the match with his second clean sheet of the season, making four saves while facing seven shots.
 
Since their return to Strassweg Field for the final time this season, USI has started to find their offensive groove over the past couple games, outscoring their opponents 3-1. In those two matches the Eagles have also taken their first penalty kicks of the season, converting on one of the two attempts. USI has had goals come from Faddis and Winkler. The defense has had the biggest impact for the Eagles over the past two matches, allowing the least number of shots in their matchup with St. Thomas and have allowed just 11 shots on goal in the two matches.
 
Meissner has been outstanding in goal for USI this season, especially as of late. Allowing just three goals over their last three matches, including his second clean sheet of the season. Meissner has made 13 saves over the past three matches while facing 18 shots on goal. Besides a couple of games against the best in the league, Meissner has had an incredible season against Summit League opponents. In conference play, he has made 39 saves and averages 5.57 saves per game, both tied for first in the conference during conference matches. He has also had lots of help from his defense as well. With senior Colten Walsh (St. Louis, Missouri) and sophomore Damian McGregor-Wickham (Toronto, Canada) being key starters every match for USI, they’ve also had many others step up as well. These include sophomore Aevar Ofjord (Grindavik, Iceland) and junior Travis Sides (Evansville, Indiana) in the middle while junior Marky Lara (Evansville, Indiana), senior Luke Lindsay (Plymouth, Minnesota), and sophomore Mical Hardtman (Hamilton Parrish, Bahamas) have been playing out wide.
 
Summit League Play
The Summit League opened their final week of the regular season on Wednesday. USI and Denver University both came out victorious as the Eagles took down St. Thomas, 2-0, and the Pioneers took down Lindenwood University, 4-0. That was the final game of the season for Lindenwood, finishing 3-11-1, 2-6-0 Summit League, in their first year of Division I play. The final day of the regular season is on Saturday with a full slate of games. Eastern Illinois University travels to the University of Nebraska Omaha for an early, 10:30am, kickoff. USI and Oral Roberts play an early afternoon match in Tulsa, Oklahoma with kickoff at 1pm. Western Illinois University travels to Denver. St. Thomas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City finish off the season with a night game in Kansas City, Missouri.
 
Oral Roberts, Denver, and Omaha have already secured spots in the Summit League Championships. With a win over USI on Saturday, or with a Denver loss to Western Illinois, Oral Roberts would claim the regular season title. With an Oral Roberts tie or loss, Denver would claim the title with a win. UMKC currently sits in the final postseason spot, but if they lose to St. Thomas and Western Illinois beats Denver, Western Illinois will take the fourth and final seed.
 
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles come into the match with USI with a 10-3-2, 6-1-0 Summit League, record and are riding a five-game win streak. The only three losses Oral Roberts have been handed this season have come against Top 25 ranked teams (Denver, Tulsa, SMU). Oral Roberts is being led by Felipe D’Agostini this season with six goals. Shane Anderson leads the Golden Eagles with nine assists on the year, he is seventh in the nation in assists. Oral Roberts has seven players with multiple goals or assists this season. Jeremy Coste has started every game for them in net this season, allowing just 17 goals and making 56 saves while facing 194 shots.

The Golden Eagles have outscored their opponents 38-17 this season but have been outshot 195-186. Oral Roberts currently sits atop the Summit League and claims the regular season title with a win or a Denver loss to Western Illinois.
 
The match between the Screaming Eagles and the Golden Eagles can be seen on the ORU Sports Network.