Photo by Lizzie Caron

McPherson, Kan. – It was a roller coaster week for the Central Christian College men's soccer team. They experienced the joy of going on the road an knocking of Sooner Athletic Conference contender, USAO 1-0 on Wednesday, only to feel the pain of being on the other end of a 1-0 decision at home on Saturday to the John Brown University Golden Eagles.

The Tigers didn't look sharp out of the gate on Saturday, likely feeling the effects of the emotional win just three days prior. Touches weren't clean, passes were just a little off target, keeping their offense from generating many opportunities against the Golden Eagles.

JBU got a little help from the officiating crew as they were awarded a penalty kick just 12 minutes into the contest. They converted and it was the only goal scored in the contest. The Tigers finished with nine total shots, with three of them forcing the JBU goal keeper into a save situation. The Golden Eagles had 12 total shots with four on frame. Sebastian Herrera was in goal for the Tigers. He was collared with the loss, and had three saves.

Coach Hoxie summed up the Tigers' performance saying, "Tough start to the game.  We really struggled in the first half with the ball.  The basics seemed to elude us, and unfortunately, we were unable to compensate for this with a competitive spirit.  We still ran and worked hard, it's not like we simply just gave up, but we made the game difficult for ourselves. In the second half, we were much better with our competition level.  We still lacked quality overall, but we were at least beginning to make the game difficult for them.  Because of that, we were going to need a piece of luck to score, and it did not come our way. Overall, I did not feel like they were better than us.  We definitely proved that we can play with the top 3, and this was part of the proof.  We played absolutely awful, and it still was a 50-50 game.  We were just unable to do what we normally do and they did what they do and got a call.  Outside of that, we limited them to not much. I'll conclude by saying this.  My performance was not good today.  I did not give my guys much of a chance for success.  This guys competed, grinded, fought, and did what they could, I just was really bad today. This game is on me."

The loss leaves the Tigers at 8-4-4 overall, and 2-3-2 in the SAC. They will wrap up the regular season next week with a pair of road games down in Texas, starting with Texas Wesleyan on Thursday at 5:00 pm in Fort Worth.