East Central College defeated the Men's Soccer team today, 3-1. Lincoln Land was looking to break a four game losing streak in Union, Missouri. Coach Dunas felt they came looking very flat, "We need to start out stronger...we leave weaker teams in games and allow them to build momentum." That is exactly what happened today. Twenty five minutes into the first half the Loggers lost the ball 40 yards out on a counter which led to a East Central goal.
Fifteen minutes later East Central scored again when one of their players collided with Logger goal keeper Jake Oldani leaving both players on the ground. Oldani ended up getting a red card on the play forcing the Loggers to move Blake Smith into the net for the first time this year. With one player short, the half ended 2-0 in favor of East Central.
LLCC regrouped at half and felt confident in acquiring the win despite being a man down. Then 5 minutes into the half freshman defender Sergio Vargas was the last man in the Logger defense when he stopped an East Central breakaway by taking a man down which resulted in the second red card for LLCC. The Loggers were then forced to play with 9 players. Coach Dunas stated, "I was proud of the boys efforts playing 2 men down They hung in there and battled and still created the same number if opportunities as east central."
Twenty five minutes into the second half Dawson Ford received a questionable yellow card which led to a red card and now leaving the LLCC to just seven players on the pitch. East Central scored their third goal despite a valiant effort being short 3 players.
The Loggers answered with a goal 4 minutes later when sophomore Kevin Bertolino played a quick restart to Naba Alzhyri who burried the ball in the net for the only Logger goal.
Coach Dunas stated, "I've seen some questionable calls in my days but three red cards for one team in a match I have never witnessed. One was legitimate, the other two were certainly not. The boys played with heart today and left everything on the pitch. I'm proud of their edgiest playing 3 men down. Jakes red card was very unfortunate. He will now miss the next two matches which happen to be region games. This has definitely been an unlucky season of tough breaks."
The loggers next match is home against region foe Lincoln college 4 pm Tuesday.
