Late Rally Not Enough for Men's Soccer

(Howell, MI)-- The Cleary men's soccer team showed plenty of fight on Wednesday evening, nearly erasing a three-goal deficit before ultimately falling to No. 17-ranked Indiana Tech.

Cleary would find themselves defending and looking to counter in the early minutes of the match.  The counter-attack would allow the Cougars to earn a corner kick in the 18th minute.  Callum Johnson would deliver a ball that found the head of Niels Koert, but Koert's header would go wide of the net.  Indiana Tech would build up the pitch and earn a corner of their own.  The resulting corner was taken short, with the Warriors whipping a ball towards the back post, where it was headed across the face of goal, and then fired into the net, handing the Cougars a 1-0 deficit in the 21st minute.  In the 26th minute, Indiana Tech doubled their lead when the ball took an unlucky bounce off a Cougar defender, and found the only Warrior in the vicinity.  He was able to beat Austin Freemire, and the Cougars found themselves trailing 2-0.

In the 47th minute, Indiana Tech struck again when a through ball was timed perfectly to get behind the Cleary backline.  The shot was placed in the right spot, and the Warriors lead grew to 3-0.  Cleary would start to make some offensive substitutions, and push forward with an urgency to try and get back into the game.  On a long throw by Simbarashe Mazarura deep in the Warriors' defensive area, Indiana Tech won the initial header and partially cleared the ball.  The half-clearance would fall to the feet of Conner Savidge, who took a shot with his left foot.  Multiple bodies blocked the view for the Warrior goalkeeper, and the ball found it's way into the net, to make the score 3-1 in the 70th minute.  Ten minutes later, Cleary would inch even closer to tying the game on another long throw.  Simbarashe Mazarura took the long throw, where it found the head of Conner Savidge.  Savidge's header went high into the air, where it was won in the air by Niels Koert, who headed it into the net, making the score 3-2 in the 80th minute.  Cleary would have their chances late, with a shot by Thomas Kanouna that floated over the crossbar, and a pair of corner kicks in the final minute.  Jack Heald would have the only shot from those corner kicks, but a Warrior would block his effort, and keep the Cougars off the board.

Austin Freemire made 1 save in the game on 4 shots faced while suffering a loss in goal.  Indiana Tech outshot the Cougars 15-8, with both teams taking 4 shots on target.  The two teams combined for 30 fouls and 6 yellow cards in the game.

The loss drops Cleary's record to 9-6 overall, 3-5 in the WHAC.  The Cougars will play the proverbial '6-point' game on Saturday, when they travel to take on the Siena Heights Saints in a WHAC matchup with playoff implications.  The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM.