UIS men's soccer fell 1-0 to Truman State on Wednesday night. The Prairie Stars created early opportunities, recording five shots and three corners in the opening stretch, and finished with a 12-9 advantage in shots.
The Prairie Stars opened the first half with sustained pressure, taking five shots and earning three corner kicks in the first 9:04 but could not score.
Robin Lemke Bergseth and
Adam Knaze each put shots on frame, while
Gentil Selemani hit the right woodwork during that early stretch. Truman State later went down a player after Braden Hannan's second yellow card at 21:15, but the Prairie Stars' two remaining shots missed and the half ended 0-0.
The Bulldogs went ahead 1-0 on Brady Lombardo's goal at 54:34, leaving UIS chasing the match for the rest of the second half. The Prairie Stars generated late pressure with a corner kick at 89:23 and shots from
Sonny Cox and
Leo Sanches at 89:56, but the match ended at 1-0.
Robin Lemke Bergseth led Illinois Springfield with six shots and put two on goal.
Joe Brudnak played all 90 minutes in goal and recorded two saves.
"In the first half, we played some good stuff, but we could have been 2-0 up," said head coach
Graham Shaw. "In the second half, we were slow with the ball. Against 10 men, we knew they would be very compact, so we needed to use the width of the pitch, and we didn't do that enough. They took their chances, and then we got more frustrated as the game went on. There is no time to dwell on this, as we start preparing for Missouri S&T now."
Up next, the Prairie Stars soccer team visits Missouri S&T at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, in Rolla, Missouri.
