The Bradley men’s soccer team continued to struggle in its second Missouri Valley Conference game against Missouri State Saturday as the Bears took advantage of some mistakes and fended off the Braves 2-1.
Missouri State got on the board early at the 20-minute mark when they took advantage of a poor clearance by the Braves to jump ahead 1-0.
Bradley was able to score the equalizer just 10 minutes later when sophomore forward Will Kidd assisted senior forward Richard Olsen for the Braves’ first goal, which deflected off the Bears’ defender and into the goal.
“Olsen’s goal was huge,” senior goalkeeper Logan Ketterer said. “He’d been dynamic all game and taking people on, and he got a lucky deflection that went over their goalkeeper. When you’re getting in and around the box enough, something good will happen.”
Late in the second half, Bradley was awarded a penalty kick after a Missouri State defender was whistled for a handball in the box. Olsen lined up the kick and scored, seemingly putting the Braves up by a goal, but the goal was revoked because the referee ruled a Bradley player entered the box too early.
Olsen was given a second chance, but that shot was saved by Missouri State goaltender Liam Priestly, keeping the game knotted at one.
“[Olsen] took it and scored, and the refs saw a couple players went across the line early from both teams,” Ketterer said. “It’s a tough call. You don’t see that call made very often. It’s unfortunate that it ends up getting called, but the keeper ends up making a nice play and getting the save.”
From that point on, the momentum seemed to turn in favor of the Bears, who added on a go-ahead goal in the 85th minute, and held on for a 2-1 victory.
The Braves then headed north Tuesday night for a non-conference matchup with Milwaukee. On the stat sheet, it seemed as if Bradley controlled the game, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
The Braves led the Panthers in shots 15-6 and doubled them up in shots on goal 8-4, but Milwaukee came up big in the stat that mattered, winning the game 2-0.
Milwaukee’s Nick Moon scored the first goal of the game not even two minutes in, giving the Panthers an early advantage.
“They played a big ball up top, and their forward’s a big guy,” Ketterer said. “He brought it down and made a couple guys miss, took a shot, put it on frame, and it just snuck past me.”
Bradley continued to generate scoring chances, but nothing landed in the net. Milwaukee goalkeeper Sam Glass had a huge game, tallying eight saves. The game was put away in the 80th minute when Milwaukee added to their lead with a penalty kick that beat Ketterer just inside the left post.
“We generated a lot in attack last night, but the point is scoring goals, not creating chances,” DeRose said. “We did create chances, which was nice, but we certainly needed to be better in the box. Their keeper made eight saves, we put some balls on target, so all-in-all we were pretty good in that regard, but we got shut out again, so obviously for us it’s got to manifest in goals, not just goal-scoring chances.”
The team’s next game will be Saturday morning, when the Braves travel to Kalamazoo, Michigan, to take on non-conference opponent Western Michigan. The Braves will return to Shea Stadium Oct. 8 to face conference opponent SIU-Edwardsville.
“They’re a great team, so it’ll be a good game,” Ketterer said. “Hopefully it’ll be a good chance for us to get back on track, and I think we’re ready. We’ve been travelling a lot this week, we’ve got some things to work through, but I think we’ll be ready to take it to them this weekend.”
