EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville men’s soccer team remained unbeaten in MVC play on Friday night, playing visiting Bradley to a 1-1 draw at Arad McCutchan Stadium. The Purple Aces honored a nine-member senior class – Hugo Amo, Nacho Diaz-Caneja, Tancredi Fadda, Nacho Garcia, Kobe Grant, Matt Hawkins, Kyle Penders, Nate Roberts, and Nalu Wagner – prior to the match to celebrate Senior Night.
Evansville faced an early deficit, as Bradley struck for the night’s first goal in the eighth minute of play.
Aces’ keeper Michal Mroz (Elk Grove, Ill./Elk Grove) kept the score at 1-0 in the 11th minute, making a leaping save to deny the Braves.
In the 27th minute, Andres Escudero (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain/IES Joan Miro) gave Evansville a chance to equalize by drawing a yellow card in the box to earn a penalty kick. Martin Wurschmidt (Stavern, Norway/Thor Heyerdahl VGS) stepped to the spot for the Purple Aces and buried a shot into the top left corner to even the match. With the goal, Wurschmidt improves to 3-for-3 on the season from the penalty spot.
After the match went into halftime tied at one, Evansville worked to generate the go-ahead goal with a shot from Ben Zec (Carmel, Ind. Carmel), and two shots by Tancreddi Fadda (Monza, Italy/University of Milan) in the 50th, 52nd and 54th minutes. Fadda was active again in the 57th minute, putting a shot on target, while Will Bencic (Cincinnati, Ohio/Lakota East) added a shot on goal of his own in the 59th minute, but both shots were saved as the match remained tied at one.
Fadda saw another shot saved in the 72nd minute, while Mroz matched Bradley keeper Drew Berry with a save of his own in the 74th minute, making an aggressive play on a breakaway to deny the Braves of the go-ahead goal.
The Purple Aces searched for the winner in the final 15 minutes of play, notching nine more shots, including two shots on goal, but the Aces were unable to find the back of the night as the match ended in a draw.
“When you concede the first goal of the match, it makes everything tougher,” said Head Coach Robbe Tarver. “Over the last two games, we have conceded first and we have had to battle back. Ultimately, we did not do enough to get the winner, but we worked for it.”
“At the end of the day, we are at worst still tied for first in the conference, still undefeated in conference play. There are still positives to take from today, but still a big missed opportunity to take a big step to hosting and accomplishing some of the goals we want to achieve.”
“We were able to celebrate our nine seniors and put forth a performance that I think everybody is proud of despite not getting the win that we wanted.”
On the night, Evansville out-shot Bradley 21-6, including a 7-3 edge in shots on goal. Fadda led the match with six shots and three shots on goal, while Devin Shepherd (Denver, Colo/Arapahoe) added four shots and Escudero added three.
With the tie, Evansville moves to 4-3-8 overall and 2-0-3 in MVC play, moving into a tie atop the MVC table with Drake at nine points. UE takes a break from conference play on Monday with a trip to Louisville to take on the Cardinals. Kick-off is set for 5 PM.
