The University of Evansville men’s soccer team captured the 2017 ProRehab Aces Soccer Classic title with a 4-1 victory over Northern Illinois on Monday afternoon at Arad McCutchan Stadium.

“It was a good game today. Any time you can get two wins in a weekend, that’s what we talked to the guys about,” said Aces head coach Marshall Ray. “That’s what we’re going to have to do if we’re fortunate enough to get ourselves into that situation in the conference tournament. Being able to put two games together in a weekend is very important.”

The Aces struck first in the 15th minute as senior Arlick Ntabana spun through the defense and finished top shelf to give UE a 1-0 lead.

Just before the halftime break, Evansville added another goal as freshman Filip Johansson scored the first goal of his collegiate career after sprinting past his defender scoring past the keeper.

The second half started out much like the previous 45 minutes as junior Caleb Williams found the end of a free kick by sophomore Jesse Stafford Lacey and headed it into the back of the net.

NIU pulled one back in the 53rd minute with a goal by Jan Maertins off a cross by Noah Brodie that cut the Aces’ lead to 3-1. The Aces added a final tally in the 68th minute as senior Ian McGrath scored his fifth goal of the season on a penalty kick as UE secured a 4-1 win.

The Huskies narrowly out-shot Evansville, 16-15, with UE holding a 6-5 advantage on shots on-goal.

McGrath, Ntabana, Williams, and Adam Snow all tallied three shots to lead the Aces. Senior goalkeeper Matthew Keller captured his fourth win of the season in goal, making four saves on 16 shots.

After the match McGrath, Stafford Lacey, Keller, and senior Chris Shuck were all named to the All-Tournament team with Shuck capturing defensive MVP honors and McGrath being named offensive MVP.

The Aces hit the road for a pair of matches in the coming weeks starting with a showdown with Grand Canyon in Phoenix, Arizona at 9 p.m. on Thursday.

The Evansville Otters lost the 96^th and final game of the regular season 6-3 to the Gateway Grizzlies in front of an announced crowd of 7,451 at GCS Ballpark.

Evansville (52-44) saw two home runs account for all of their scoring to bring their season total to 99 in 2017.

Gateway (32-64) took the series over the Otters with back-to-back wins to close out their season.

With a Washington Wild Things win before the start of the game, the Otters automatically became the four seed for the 2017 Frontier League Division Series. Evansville will host the Schaumburg Boomers in the FLDS on Tuesday and Wednesday at Bosse Field.

The Otters got on the board first in the top of the first inning. Alejandro Segovia hit a two-run shot to left field to score himself and Brandon Soat who led off the inning with a single.

Gateway immediately responded in the bottom of the frame. An RBI single from Evan Rogers plated Cody Livesay to make it 2-1 in Evansville’s favor.

The Grizzlies took the lead in the third on a three-run home run from Brent Sakurai. Gateway then added their second home run of the night on a two-run blast from Dan Holst in the fifth to make it 6-2.

Evansville got one run back in the eighth on Nick Walker’s first home run of the year. With Walker’s home run, every active position player for Evansville finished the regular season with at least one home run.

Trent Lunsford took the loss for Evansville. The Otters starter walked a season high seven batters and gave up five hits in four innings of work. Lunsford allowed six earned runs in his second loss of the season.

Andrew Utterback and Kyano Cummings combined for four innings of scoreless baseball in relief of Lunsford.

Vincent Molesky was awarded the win for Gateway. Molesky threw eight innings giving up six hits and three earned runs. He struck out 12 with only one walk.

Molesky threw one pitch in the ninth before ceremoniously being removed by manager Phil Warren. Molesky was greeted by family and friends and even proposed to his girlfriend on the field. Molesky will age out of the league next season.

First pitch between Evansville and Schaumburg on Tuesday is set for 6:35 p.m.

Fans can listen on 91.5 WUEV with Lucas Corley (play-by-play) and Bill McKeon (color commentary) providing coverage.

Tickets for FLDS games on Sept. 5-6 at Bosse Field are available by going to evansvilleotters.com or calling 812-435-8686.

 The University of Evansville women’s soccer team dropped a non-conference road match to Western Kentucky, 4-1, on Sunday night in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Despite no goals being scored in the opening 30 minutes, there was plenty of activity as both teams combined for eight shots.

The Hilltoppers got on the board in the 37th minutes that provided WKU a 1-0 lead heading into the half.

WKU added a second goal in the 58th minute as Chandler Backes scored her third goal of the season. Backes added another goal just nine minutes later to push the Hilltoppers lead to 3-0.

Following a fourth goal by WKU, the Aces got on the board with a goal by freshman Katie Schroeder, the first of her collegiate career, assisted by senior Montana Portenier and junior Sara Osinski.

Leading the Aces was Schroeder with three shots and a goal, while senior JBess Ruby and junior Molly Lear each recorded two shots.

The Hilltoppers fired 23 shots to the Aces’ nine with WKU putting 12 on-goal to four for UE.

The Aces return home to Arad McCutchan Stadium for a pair of contests. UE opens the weekend against Miami (Ohio) at 5:30 p.m. on September 8 before taking on Morehead State at 1 p.m. on September 10.

The University of Southern Indiana men’s soccer team scored early and often in a 4-2 victory over Union University Sunday afternoon in Jackson, Tennessee. The Screaming Eagles start a season 2-0, while Union falls to 0-2 to start the year.

USI got the early lead, 1-0, with a little help from Union on an own-goal at 6:21. The Eagles quickly extended the lead on their own with a tally by freshman defender Justin Raines (Bartlett, Tennessee), his second goal of the season. Raines was assisted on the play by freshman midfielder Tyler Paradis (Fishers, Indiana) and sophomore defender Drew Albert (Eureka, Missouri).

USI sophomore midfielder Sean Rickey (Columbia, Illinois) knocked in the third goal of the half and his first of the season off a pass from sophomore midfielder Adam Newman (Marion, Illinois) at 27:40. Union would score with 1:29 left in the half for a 3-1 USI lead at intermission.

In the second half, USI sealed the victory when sophomore defender Justin Brooks (Fishers, Indiana) increased the Eagles’ lead to 4-1 at the 71:42. Brooks scored the breakaway goal off the long pass and second assist of the game by Albert.

Union tried to get back into the match, closing the gap to 4-2 with a penalty kick goal at 80:12. The 4-2 margin was a close as the match would be the rest of the way as the Eagles closed out their second win of the year.

Between the posts, senior goalkeeper Adam Zehme (Orland Park, Illinois) posted his second win of the year. Zehme allowed one goal and made a pair of saves in 82 minutes of action. Freshman goalkeeper Justin Faas (Carmel, Indiana) finished the match between the posts, allowing one goal and making a save.

The Eagles continue their four match road swing Friday when they open the 2017 Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Follow the live coverage, including live stats and video, on GoUSIEagles.com.

USI returns to the friendly surroundings of Strassweg Field September 22 when it hosts the University of Indianapolis for a 7:30 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference match.

Aces head to Ohio 

 The new season begins on Monday for the University of Evansville women’s golf team as they travel to the Roseann Schwartz Invitational at Mill Creek Park Golf Course in Boardman, Ohio.

The event will feature nine other schools including Wheeling Jesuit, Indiana State, Saint Francis (Pa.), Marshall, Dayton, Niagara, Akron, Youngstown State and Cleveland State. This will be the largest field of teams the event has ever featured.

Set to be played on Mill Creek Park’s North Course, the teams will play single rounds on Monday and Tuesday. Monday’s round is set to start at 10 a.m. with tee times going until 1 p.m. Tuesday’s tee times are scheduled from 8 to 9:30 a.m. The course will play 6,023 yards and par is 72.

Purple Aces mainstays Kayla Katterhenry and Maggie Camp have graduated and UE will now look to Maria Pickens, Giulia Mallmann, Madison Chaney and Lexie Sollman to take the helm of the squad.  Pickens is the highest returning player as she average 83.53 stroke per round last season.  Her top effort last year came at the Braun Invitational as she tied for 6^th place.

Chaney averaged 84.25 strokes while Mallmann finished her junior campaign at 84.64 strokes.

UE also welcomes newcomers Minka Gill and Sophia Rohleder to the team.  Gill is a native of Kokomo, Ind. where she attended Western High School.  Rohleder is from Evansville and played at Mater Dei.

The University of Southern Indiana women’s soccer team could not stop the University of Findlay in the second half and suffered a 5-3 defeat Saturday afternoon Findlay, Ohio. USI goes to 1-1 to start the season, while Findlay finishes the first weekend, 1-1.

The Screaming Eagles got off to a fast start and built a 2-1 lead by the intermission. Freshman midfielder Maggie Winter (St. Louis, Missouri) started the Eagles’ scoring at 13:00, her second goal of the weekend.

After Findlay got the equalizer less than a minute later at 13:27, USI freshman defender Madelyne Juenger (Columbia, Illinois) put the Eagles back on top, 2-1, at 14:47 with her first collegiate goal. Juenger was assisted on the play by sophomore midfielder Courtney Spicer (Loveland, Ohio). The Eagles would hold the 2-1 lead through the intermission.

The second half would belong to the Oilers as they started the final 45 minutes with three unanswered goals to take control. Finlay knotted the score at 2-2 just 1:07 past halftime and took the lead for good, 3-2, at 55:17 and 4-2 at 64:11.

USI would try to get back into the match in the final 15 minutes. Winter struck for her second goal of the afternoon at 77:00 to close the gap to 4-3 and hit the crossbar at 81:00, but that would be as close as the Eagles would come the rest of the match.

Findlay closed out the scoring with the match’s final goal at 88:56 to seal its victory.

The Eagles return to the tristate Tuesday when they visit Oakland City University for a 3 p.m. USI is not slated to play in front of the home crowd at Strassweg Field until September 22 when it hosts the University of Indianapolis for a 5 p.m. Great Lakes Valley Conference match-up.