The Men's Soccer team competed in their first match of the 2021 season tonight as they battled Division I HBU. The inter-Houston matchup went the full distance as UST held the Huskies to a stalemate ending the match 0-0.
The aggressive tone was set early in the game as two yellow cards were awarded to both teams during first half. HBU attained control for the majority of the first half as their offense pressured the Celts defense. With the Huskies putting up seven shots in the first half alone, Goalkeeper Rodrigo Lazo certainly had his work cut out for him. UST's defense prevailed as they headed into the break knotted up 0-0.
"We are doing very well; we are compact, we are doing a really good job to keep them from getting what they want. We just need to keep the ball a little bit more and find ways to break on them." Head coach Ian Clerihew said during half time.
The Celts had their chances to gain the edge on HBU. Midway through the second half, they experienced a two-minute stretch where they had two shots on goal. However, the Huskie defense was able weather the Celts' storm. After 90 minutes of play, the teams headed to extra time where they played golden goal. In the last 9 minutes of the match, the Celts were forced to play with 10 men as a red card was assigned to UST. However, the Huskies had no luck capitalizing on this which pushed the game to a 0-0 tie.
"To go 110 minutes against a Division I team is remarkable, this early in the year. We grew so much from it. A 0-0 draw may hurt a little bit in some circumstances, but in this one I am so proud of the guys. We had our chances and so did they to be fair. I think 0-0 was a fair result. We will take this and keep growing and we feel good," said Coach Clerihew after the match.
The Celts return to action February 20th as they host Schreiner University. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00.
