University of St. Thomas Athletics
Saturday, October 22
St. Paul, Minn.
4:00 p.m. Central
2-10-2, 1-3-1
0
vs
1
Western Illinois
2-6-7, 2-1-2
1
2
F
Western Ill.
0
1
1
St. Thomas (MN)
0
0
0
Tough week for Men's Soccer ends in 1-0 loss to Western
10/22/2022 2:52:00 PM | Men's Soccer
St. Paul, Minn. - Western Illinois converted the game's only goal in the 63rd minute and host Tommie Men's Soccer dropped a 1-0 decision in Saturday's Summit League game at South Field.
St. Thomas (2-10-2 overall, 1-3-1 Summit) was playing its third game in eight days and second in four days. The long week of travel provided an obstacle for Toms, and the postgame mood wasn't helped when their apparent tying goal scored in the 89th minute was erased by an offsides call.
The Toms lost 1-0 last Saturday night at Omaha; lost 5-0 on Wednesday night at Oral Roberts in a game that was scoreless at halftime; then spent most of Thursday in a travel day home from Tulsa, Okla. That was a makeup game from an Oct. 1 contest that was postponed by the death of a ORU player in a traffic accident.
If there was a bright spot, the team's fatigue and injuries prompted Coach Jon Lowery to use 20 players in the game, including several freshmen.
Western Illinois (2-6-7, 2-1-2) had a 5-3 edge in shots on goal and a 4-3 advantage in corner kicks. Its goal came off a free kick just outside the box midway through the second half.
Quoting Coach Jon Lowery
Did You Know?
Saturday's game was No. 200 at St. Thomas for Jon Lowery.
Last season Western Illinois scored a 2-1 home win over the Purple in the first meeting in the series.
After allowing 23 goals in the first seven games in a 1-6 start, the Toms have given up a modest 11 goals in the last seven contests. They have allowed just six goals in six home games.
Up Next
The Toms play next Saturday Oct. 29 at home against Lindenwood in the final home test of 2022.
St. Thomas (2-10-2 overall, 1-3-1 Summit) was playing its third game in eight days and second in four days. The long week of travel provided an obstacle for Toms, and the postgame mood wasn't helped when their apparent tying goal scored in the 89th minute was erased by an offsides call.
The Toms lost 1-0 last Saturday night at Omaha; lost 5-0 on Wednesday night at Oral Roberts in a game that was scoreless at halftime; then spent most of Thursday in a travel day home from Tulsa, Okla. That was a makeup game from an Oct. 1 contest that was postponed by the death of a ORU player in a traffic accident.
If there was a bright spot, the team's fatigue and injuries prompted Coach Jon Lowery to use 20 players in the game, including several freshmen.
Western Illinois (2-6-7, 2-1-2) had a 5-3 edge in shots on goal and a 4-3 advantage in corner kicks. Its goal came off a free kick just outside the box midway through the second half.
Quoting Coach Jon Lowery
"It's disappointing. I'm proud of the guys, they represented themselves well in a (fierce) game and are incredibly fatigued, you could see the guys battling. I wanted to get the game as open as possible at the end. It sounds crazy because you are opening yourself up to counter (attacks)... The game was so (conservative) for like 60 minutes. The second we opened up the game, boom, we had two really good chances. As a coaching staff maybe we should do that earlier.
"These guys get up and go every time. This is really disappointing, but we also know this is hard. We're going to take every lesson that is thrown at us. Some of them are fun lessons, some are not so fun. But we are going to learn from them and hopefully these lessons will serve us well going forward.
"I'm so proud of our guys on so many levels. I see Miguel Gonzalez cutting his teeth out there in the midfield. I see Gunnar Busch cutting his teeth in the midfield. We're half way through the conference (schedule) and at one point we had five freshmen out there. That's super exciting, but it doesn't always add up to (winning) results. There are a lot of positives.
"(With three games left to play) I want to see the fight, and this is well we're going to find out... We don't feel sorry for ourselves, we're going back to work."
Did You Know?
Saturday's game was No. 200 at St. Thomas for Jon Lowery.
Last season Western Illinois scored a 2-1 home win over the Purple in the first meeting in the series.
After allowing 23 goals in the first seven games in a 1-6 start, the Toms have given up a modest 11 goals in the last seven contests. They have allowed just six goals in six home games.
Up Next
The Toms play next Saturday Oct. 29 at home against Lindenwood in the final home test of 2022.
Team Stats
Necks
Tommie
Goals
1
0
Shots
12
7
Shots on Goal
5
2
Saves
2
4
Corners
4
3
Fouls
9
14
Scoring Plays
Kyle Owen (3)
GOAL by Necks Owen, Kyle.
62:52
Game Leaders
Shots
2
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
1
SOG
0
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
0
Assists
0
Shots
1
SOG
1
Goals
0
Assists
0
Players Mentioned
MF
/ Men's Soccer
MF
/ Men's SoccerMen's Soccer
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