On a chilly Saturday in Deaton Filed Saint Xavier’s Men’s Soccer Team fell to The Olivet Nazarene Tiger 2-0. This game coming after a loss to another conference rival, Cardinal Stritch, pretty much puts an end to any conference title hopes the Cougars had.
The Tigers started off early with a goal in the 23rd minute scored by Thomas Barboza. The Cougars were familiar with being down early, so the team did not panic. The Cougars responded quickly with a shot on goal just over a minute later, however it was saved by the Tigers’ goalkeeper, Britton Wolff.
Saint Xavier would continue peppering Olivet Narene for much of the first half, even having seven shots, however none of them were accurate enough to hit the back of the net and the Cougars faced a 1-0 deficit going into halftime.
Olivet Nazarene controlled possession early in the second half and in the 52nd minute Barboza was able to bag his second goal of the day off an assist by Max Jasper.
This goal gave The Cougars some urgency and they responded similarly to the last goal. Five minutes after the goal by Olivet Nazarene SXU attacker Christian Nava shot a ball just right of the goal. This was the second time of the game where SXU game just short of responding to Olivet Nazarene’s goals.
After this Olivet Nazarene began to control the game getting multiple chances at a goal and even having four corner kicks between the 59th and 71st minute. Then SXU got the break they needed, in the 73rd minute Olivet Nazarene’s best player and only goal scorer got a red card and was kicked out of the game. Now SXU didn’t have to worry about the Tigers scoring again and Olivet Nazarene was limited to ten players. Then in the 76th minute things got even better for the Cougars as Olivet Nazarene got their second red card, this time the perpetrator was defenseman Guilherme Cruz.
The Cougars were now primed for a comeback in the next 14 minutes. All they needed to do was score twice against a team who were limited to nine men. They controlled possession for the rest of the game and added seven shots, but they never took advantage of the opportunity they were given and not only did they end up not scoring, in their seven shots they were only able to get two to hit the target.
The main reason for this disappointing loss is clear, missed opportunities. The Cougars dominated the game from a chances standpoint ending the game with 17 shots to the Tiger six. However when you look at the shots on goal we see things were much closer with SXU getting five to Olivet Nazarene’s three. Olivet Nazarene were much better at finishing making the keeper make a save on 50% of their shots in comparison to Saint Xavier’s 29%.
Goalkeeping also need to be better, a save percentage of 33% is not going to win you many games, especially against a team with a better attack.
The Cougars have a chance to rebound from this loss in their next home game at Deaton Field on Saturday Night against Governor State.