Mountaineers suffer defeat on late goal

The Eastern Oklahoma State College men's soccer team fell to Northeast Texas Community College (NETCC) 1-0 on Thursday at the Mountaineer Soccer Complex.

The Mountaineers dropped to 0-1, 0-0 in the Region II conference.

PLAY BY PLAY
- In the 87th minute, NETCC scored on a deflection after a foul right outside the box.
- Marc-Antoine Huzen had a number of big saves and stopped several breakaways and a penalty kick to help keep the game scoreless until the final minutes.
- In the final minutes, Jose Maria Ruarte was denied a penalty kick opportunity to tie the game on a questionable tackle in the box.

Eastern Head Coach Jon Evan said he was proud of his team's effort.

"We were prepared to play and battle. It was an evenly contested game with both teams creating chances. We need to give credit to NETCC for taking advantage of the opportunity to put the game away. NETCC is a much improved team coming off a big pre-season win against defending NAIA national champion Wayland Baptist. I expect them to make some noise this year," Evan said. "On the other hand, we can't be satisfied with just competing at a high level now. We want to compete, play in, and win these types of games. Now our young team has to grow and learn from our failure."

GAME NOTES
- The Mountaineers had six shots and put four on frame.
- Huzen made seven saves in the game.

Eastern will continue it's homestand against Hill College on Tuesday, Aug. 28 at 5 p.m.