UE Men’s Soccer Plays to Draw in Season Opener

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville men’s soccer team opened their 2025 campaign on Thursday night, playing to a 1-1 draw against the Bellarmine Knights at Arad McCutchan Stadium.

Bellarmine got the scoring started early, as Johan Nissen-Lie found the ball at his feet inside the 18 and converted the chance to put the Knights on top. Pablo Calvete (Ponferrada, Spain/UNIR) put up the first shot of the season for the Aces in the 8^th minute, followed by Tancredi Fadda (Monza, Italy/University of Milan) getting up the first shot on goal in the 14^thminute. The Aces continued to create chances throughout the remainder of the first half, with Martin Warschmidt (Stavern, Norway/Thor Heyerdahl VGS) and Andres Escudero (San Sebastian de los Reyes, Spain/IES Joan Miro) putting shots on goal, but Bellarmine remained in the lead heading into the break.

Evansville continued to push on the attack in the opening minutes of the second half and was able to break through in the 54^th minute when freshman Ben Zec (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) drew a foul in the box to earn his team a penalty kick. Fadda stepped up to the spot to take the penalty and calmy buried a shot into the upper left corner of the goal to even the score at one apiece.

Momentum continued in the Aces’ favor for the next 15 minutes, but the tide turned when Evansville had a player sent off for picking up his second yellow card, forcing them to play a man down for the final 20 minutes.

However, the Aces were able weather the storm, keeping the Knights off the board as the night ended in a 1-1 draw.

“We were resilient,” said UE head coach Robbe Tarver. “I thought we were unfortunate to give up the goal that we did and played really well the rest of the first half, just didn’t create enough chances.”

“We drew the penalty and I thought we were really growing into the game, and then unfortunately we got a second yellow card. I thought we showed a lot of resilience from the early goal that we gave up as well as the red card.”

Evansville out-shot Bellarmine 10-4 overall, including a 4-2 edge in shots on goal. Fadda led the way in shots with three, as well as in shots in goal at two. Michal Mroz (Elk Grove, Ill./Elk Grove) made one save in goal for the Aces.

With the draw, Evansville sits at 0-0-1 on the year. The Aces will be back on Sunday, traveling to Macon, Ga. for a meeting with Mercer.