Men's Soccer game | Photo by Carli Devanna | The Wright State Guardian
On Tuesday evening, the Wright State University men’s soccer team took to Alumni field to host Eastern Illinois University. Neither team managed to put up enough points to come out on top.
Background
Entering the match, WSU held a 3-3-0 record in their overall season games. Last season, EIU and WSU went head to head during their season and ended with a 1-1 tie.
WSU came into Tuesday following a 2-0 win against IU Indy the previous Saturday.
“It was a big win for us on Saturday against IUI, so we felt confident going into the game against Eastern Illinois,” head coach Alex Van Der Sluijs said.
The match
The match started off with EIU having possession of the ball. Within the first two minutes of the match, WSU fouled an EIU player in the box resulting in a penalty kick for EIU. This resulted in EIU starting the match off with a 1-0 lead.
The Raiders were holding their own on the offensive side and managed to put up eleven shots before reaching halftime. The match up was very physical, with WSU drawing three yellow-cards and EIU drawing two yellow-cards.
Going into halftime WSU was trailing 1-0, at the start of the second halftime WSU came in ready to work and put themselves on the board. In minute 76, senior Cole Werthmuller scored the first goal for WSU off an assist from sophomore Edwin Espinal-Elvir.
“After scoring the first goal, the whole team's focus shifted to getting the second and trying to get the third after that,” Werthmuller said.
Shortly after, in minute 88, Werthmuller headed an assist from freshman Brian Burkett, securing the second goal for the Raiders.
“Two great services from [Espinal-Elvir] and [Burkett] set me nicely to do my job and score,” Werthmuller added.
With only seven minutes left of the match, WSU was going hard and tough to reach that third goal.
“The game was extremely physical and chippy between both teams. Seeing [WSU] come back from down 0-2 was incredible, and it shows the toughness and leadership skills of the team,” stated audience member Ovid Wilson.
Following the second goal from WSU, neither team managed to attack, ending in a 2-2 draw.
Heading into the next match
Although the Raiders did not finish with a win in this match, the team is going into the next match ready to work hard, and are prepared to take on Milwaukee.
“You can't control winning but we can control our preparation,” coach Van Der Sluijs stated.
With a 3-3-1 record in their overall season so far, the raiders will take to the road September 21 at 2 p.m. against Milwaukee.
