Not a single Bradley soccer match will be played at Shea Stadium until Oct. 6.
So the Braves wanted to put on a good show for their fans before they embark on their season-long six game road trip.
That didn’t happen.
On Thursday night Xavier dismantled the Braves 4-2 in front of a less than stellar amount of fans, especially for the annual President’s Night Out. The President’s Night Out is hosted by President Joanne Glasser to bring together the freshman class at a soccer game.
Glasser, however, did not attend the game.
The Braves fell behind 24 minutes into the game as Xavier’s Alex Ridsdale scored his first of two goals of the night as the Braves gave away the ball near the box.
Xavier would tack on one more goal in the first half as the Braves faced a 2-0 deficit going into halftime for the first time this season.
Coach Jim DeRose says his team fell victim to a couple of bad bounces and the team showed a lot of heart in the second half.
“I think what, the first half they had two shots and two goals?” DeRose said. “No saves, so I thought that we were unlucky. It’s soccer. I thought we came out with some energy in that second half, we came out strong.”
The second half though, started exactly how the first ended.
Xavier’s Ridsdale was given the ball from the Bradley defenders and curled the ball inside the right post to put the Musketeers ahead 3-0.
The Braves finally got on the board in the 61 minute when junior defender Grant Bell redirected a shot from senior Cody Lofgren to make the game 3-1. Grant’s goal was his third of the season and now leads the team in goals.
Xavier countered less than four minutes later to go up 4-1 and then Lofgren scored his first goal of the season in the 74 minute to make the final score of 4-2 Musketeers.
Junior goalkeeper Shay Niemeyer suffers his second loss of the season and has given up 10 goals the first three games this season. But DeRose says he is confident in his net minder.
“The goalkeeping had nothing to do with it tonight,” DeRose said. “I think his first two goals, one was from three yards out and one was from six yards out. It bounced around, they scrapped around and got that one. At that point, when you give up four goals in the last two games, it has little to do with goalkeeping.”
The Braves head to the West Coast next week to play at the University of San Diego and at California State University, Northridge on Sep. 12 and Sep. 14, respectively.
