Photo by Kami Wood
Siloam Springs, Ark. – The Central Christian College men's soccer team fell 4-2 on the road Tuesday night to John Brown University, currently the top team in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings.
There is little doubt that JBU is a talented side, and playing on their home pitch, they are even more formidable. That being said, there were times on Tuesday where the Tigers' sloppy play led to easy opportunities for the Golden Eagles.
JBU got on the scoreboard first, finding the back of the net in the 9th minute of action. They added two more goals less than a minute a part later in the half to go up 3 nil. The Tigers finally cracked the scoring column in the 32nd minute when Francisco Leite (Sr. Porto, Portugal), tickled the nylon off of a pass from Johnny Rodriguez (Jr. Anaheim, Calif.).
Leading 3-1 at the break, the Golden Eagles made it 4-1 midway through the second frame. Late in the half, the Tigers were awarded a penalty kick, and Rodriguez was given the nod. He buried the attempt pulling the Tigers back to within two goals. Unfortunately time ran out before the Tigers could manage any more scoring opportunities.
Rodolfo Ramirez (Jr. Mission Viejo, Calif.), and Timothy Foster (So. Palm Coast, Fla.), split time in goal for the Tigers. Ramirez, who was credited with the loss, had 3 goals against with two saves and Foster gave up one goal while being credited with 4 saves.
Coach Hoxie summed up the loss saying, "I think we were a bit naïve tonight. It has been a long time since we've played in a match, on the road, against a top 25 team, in a match that has meaning in the standings. We were naïve in the sense that the little things cost us, things that are what I call the margins in a tightly contested match. Things like paying attention on set pieces, communication, and of course passing. The frustrating thing was that we were not under any real pressure, and still tossed it away."
He added, "It is easy to look at the match and start blaming people, but the responsibility lands squarely on my shoulders. I understand the task at hand, and simply put, I need to be better. We do, however, need to try and find a way to finish a game with 11 players on the field, that seems to be a challenge for us this season, and it is costing us points."
He concluded with, "That being said, nothing but praise for the guys for their desire to compete in the second half, with 10 men. I thought we were brave and worked our socks off to try and win the game. That is the whole purpose of it after all. No moral victories here though, we lost, and that is part of the deal. My fear now is that the human cost may be too much for us to overcome at the moment. We will see."
With the loss, the Tigers are 8-3-2 overall, and 3-3 in conference play. They will be back on the pitch this Saturday in a 1:30 match-up with the Southwestern Assemblies of God University Lions.
