KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Western Michigan men's soccer team concluded its 2019 regular season campaign with a 1-1 draw against SIU Edwardsville in Mid-American Conference play. Following the result, the Broncos are now 11-5-2 overall and 2-1-2 in conference action.
"We had a lot of the possession today, but lacked that killer instinct in the attacking third," stated head coach
Chad Wiseman. "SIUE is a good team and I thought we did a fantastic job defensively on their two talented forwards. We were aware of where they were on the field and sent help when needed."
SIUE scored the opening goal of the match in the 22nd minute, with Jake Meier scoring his first of the season in unassisted fashion. Despite out-shooting the Cougars 7-3 in the first half, WMU trailed by one following 45 minutes of play.
The Broncos continued to apply offensive pressure in the second half and earned an equalizing goal in the 62nd minute. Sophomore forward
Eric Conerty scored a header off a free kick ball from senior defender
Paul Liagre. Conerty, a transfer from Butler, now has five goals on the year for Western Michigan.
The Broncos earned 13 corner kicks on the afternoon and recorded seven shots on goal, compared to just three corner kicks and four shots on goal for SIUE.
Redshirt freshman goalkeeper
Isaac Walker made three saves in net for WMU and is now 9-2-2 on the year.
Jake DeJulio, Anthony Bowie, Alex Ruddock, Giuseppe Vitale, Paul Liagre and
Sam Biek all saw action in their final regular season match in Kalamazoo and were honored prior to the game for Senior Day 2019.
"Congratulations to our six seniors as making it to senior day in college athletics is one of the toughest things to do," Wiseman exclaimed. "These group of guys are great young men with strong character and represent our great university well."
The Broncos will now wait to see where they will be seeded in the 2019 MAC Championship, which will begin this Tuesday with a pair of quarterfinal contests.
"It's now tournament time and we need to elevate our game to another level," concluded Wiseman. "We have the talent, we just need to get more focused and pay attention to all the details. I'm looking forward to seeing what this team can achieve in the postseason."
#WeWillReign
