AKRON, Ohio – SIUE men's soccer's seven-game unbeaten streak came to an end Friday at the hands of Akron. The Zips defeated the Cougars 3-0 at FirstEnergy Stadium.
The loss was the first for SIUE since a Sept. 21 defeat at Oral Roberts. The Cougars fell to 8-4-2 overall and 2-1 in the Mid-American Conference. Akron improved to 4-8-2 overall and 2-0-1 in MAC play. Akron is now on seven points and moved ahead of SIUE in the MAC standings. The Cougars have six points.
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Mani Austman put Akron on top in the 4th minute with a strike from outside the penalty area.
"Our game plan was good and our initial start was very good," SIUE Head Coach Cale Wassermann said. "One moment of quality from one very good player and we lost a little confidence.
Akron went up 2-0 on a goal by David Egbo in the 37th minute.
"We made a few adjustments and were just phenomenal in the second half," Wassermann said. "For the bulk of the half we were the better team. But you can't spot them a two-goal lead."
The Cougars managed eight shots in the second half and hit the post twice.
"We practically did everything right in the second half," Wassermann added. "We had four or five clear-cut chances. We pushed a very-good Akron team to their limit."
Will Jackson scored the final goal for Akron with less than a minute to play.
SIUE returns home to finish the regular season with West Virginia Sat., Nov. 2.
"West Virginia is a very good team, which has a couple of top-25 wins," Wassermann said. "We'll be happy to be back at Korte. It will good to play in front of the home crowd."
