EVANSVILLE, Ind. – After winning their first MVC match of the season last Friday at Bowling Green, the University of Evansville men’s soccer team is back in action tomorrow for another key MVC clash, hosting Western Michigan at Arad McCutchan Stadium. Evansville enters Saturday’s match riding a five-match unbeaten streak and looks to win their third in a row. Kick-off is set for 6 PM.
The Purple Aces will celebrate Soccer Night in Evansville on Saturday, with kids (8th grade & younger) getting in free, while tickets for all other fans are just $5.
Last Time Out
In what was a rematch of last season’s MVC Tournament final, the Purple Aces made a statement, kicking off MVC play with a decisive 3-0 win over Bowling Green on Friday night.
Three different Aces tallied goals, as Pablo Calvete (Ponferrada, Spain/UNIR) and Armon Haghighat (Irvine, Calif./Irvine Valley CC) scored their first goals as Aces and Andres Escudero (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain/IES Joan Miro) scored for the sixth time in the last five matches. Chase Ricker (Albuquerque, N.M./La Cueva HS) also had a big night offensively, becoming the first Evansville player with multiple assists in a match this season with two.
Evansville jumped ahead early, scoring in the 10th minute. After earning a corner kick, Ricker delivered a ball to the far post, where Calvete was waiting to deliver the night’s first goal.
The score remained 1-0 for most of the first half, but Evansville was able to add on just before halftime. In the 43rd minute, Nate Roberts (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman) started an attack with a run before sending a through ball to Ricker, who put a left-footed cross to the far post for Haghighat, where he buried a shot into the top right corner to extend the lead.
Evansville continued to control things in the second half, maintaining their two-goal lead through the first 35 minutes of the period. Escudero nearly extended the lead in the 74th minute off a perfect service from Devin Shepherd (Denver, Colo./Arapahoe), but his shot went off the crossbar.
However, Escudero was able to strike six minutes later, converting on another perfect service, this time from Nacho Diaz-Caneja (Coruña, Spain/Oregon State), to put an exclamation point on the night. With the goal, Escudero tied the national lead (now second nationally) for goals by a freshman this season with six, all of which have come in the last five matches.
