EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men’s soccer picked up its first Missouri Valley Conference win of the season, shutting out UIC 2-0 Sunday at Korte Stadium.
The Cougars improved to 4-5-2 overall and 1-3 in Missouri Valley play. UIC fell to 3-5-2 and 1-2-1.
“That’s a good UIC team,” SIUE Head Coach Cale Wassermann said. “They pushed us to the 90th minute. I am extremely happy with the clean sheet, the group effort and a couple of strong individual performances. To get our first win in the conference gives us a lot of confidence going forward.”
Max Broughton headed home the game winner in the 32nd minute after a free kick from Oskar Lenz, who had missed the previous three games from injury.
“We have been missing Oskar,” Wassermann said. “He’s one of our key set piece guys with delivery. He put it on a platter and Max finished it. It was one of the lowest headers I have ever seen Max take. He had one called back last week so It was good to see him get rewarded today with the game-winner.”
UIC goalkeeper Andres Vasquez made seven total saves, including six in the first half to keep the game close.
“I credit (Vasquez) for sure,” Wassermann said. “His first half made it tough for us and kept them in it.”
Andres Delascio picked up his second goal of the year in the 84th to put the game away. Jacob Bilyeu played a ball across the box from the right where Delascio was able to catch Vasquez leaning, finishing to the keeper’s right.
“It’s a game of tight margins and we were able to punch two in the back,” Wassermann added.
Eric Bauche made three saves in goal for the Cougars to earn his third shutout of the year.
The win snapped a five-game winless streak (0-4-1) for the Cougars.
“I think if you look at the last stretch of games, I think we could live with each of those in isolation,” Wassermann said. “Consecutively they become a heavy weight and a lot of added pressure. You start to feel like bounces aren’t going your way.
“This group took things one at a time all week,” he continued. “We focused on training and we made some adjustments with some new personnel. The guys executed really well today. Even in moments of adversity in the game-they handled those and moved on quickly which is important at this level.”
SIUE next plays host to Evansville Saturday at Korte Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 3 p.m.
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