MUW Bests Eureka in Season Opener, 5-2

EUREKA – The Eureka men's soccer team opened its season with a 5-2 loss to Mississippi University for Women at McKinizie Field on Thursday.

Freshmen Kamiel Sauer (Haarlem, Netherlands/Coornhert Lyceum) and Justin Siebert (Hopedale, Ill./Olympia) each scored their first goals of their collegiate career in their Red Devil debuts. The Red Devils played with the visitors for most of the match, but the team made too many mental mistakes and defensive breakdowns in the first half to keep it close.

MUW's Kai VanCourt put the Owls on the board first, scoring on a header off a free kick from Pedro Santana from 35 yards out.

Eureka responded on its next set-piece opportunity less than a 90 seconds later, when Sauer bent a free kick from 25 yards out around the wall and into the left back side of the net.

After the equalizer, the score remained tied for the next 12 minutes until the Owls scored again off a through ball past the back line and finish in the box. This time, VanCourt received the pass up field, turned and passed it across the 18 to a streaking Josh Martin, who put it away with a sliding finish.

That ended up being the first of four straight goals for the Owls, all scored by Vini Lopes. He made the finish off a deflection following an EC miscommunication in the back with less than four minutes left in the half, then put away a 1 v. 1 after a through ball with less than 2:30 remaining.

The Owls led 4-1 at half. Three minutes into the half, they tallied their fifth and final goal of the day on another 1 v. 1 by Lopes.

The Red Devils had their share of chances in the second half, and in the 74th minute, Siebert finally found the back of the net, completing a beautiful counterattack.

It started with Bawi Sang (Thang Tlang, Myanmar/Roger C. Sullivan) winning the ball in the air in Eureka's defensive third and knocking it up field. Jake Edmondson (Monticello, Ill./Monticello) flicked it off his head, to the feet of Sauer, who one-timed it up the field to Will Wiegand (Metamora, Ill./Metamora). Wiegand took it to goal and nudged it away to Siebert before the keeper could close in, and Siebert made the easy finish.

The Red Devils (0-1) will be looking to recreate those kinds of counters on Friday at 1 p.m. when they take on MUW (1-1) again to complete the season series.