ST. LOUIS – Missouri Baptist men's soccer was again in need of a bounce back performance on Tuesday afternoon. The Spartans gave Central Baptist College (CBC) all it could handle in the first half and controlled the game in the second to dispatch the Mustangs by a score of 2-0.
MBU (9-4, 3-2 in AMC) wasn't necessarily reeling after the weekend's 1-0 defeat to Columbia College, but a loss at home to CBC (8-4-2, 1-3-2 in AMC) would have put the Spartans in a tough spot. MoBap came into the game fighting to keep pace with the Cougars and first-place Williams Baptist in the American Midwest Conference standings. The win propelled MBU to a singular grasp of third in the standings.
The scoring was opened early on by midfielder
Matteo Uez. The high press of the Spartans attack harassed the CBC defense throughout the first half, and the junior capitalized on an errant pass deep in the Mustangs half. Uez pounced on the loose ball and fitted a long shot from outside of the penalty area into the upper right corner of the goal that the goalkeeper had no chance of stopping (6:13).
MoBap would double its advantage later in the opening period with a beautifully lifted corner by senior
Jack Griffiths that went directly to the back post. Defender
Ross Wilson met the ball with an effort that hit his thigh and found the back of the net (26:55) for his third goal of the year.
It was a defensive showing for the Spartans after the halftime break. CBC would narrowly miss a chance at cutting the lead in half on a couple of occasions, but the MBU defense would not break and maintained its seventh clean sheet of the season.
"I think last game against Columbia… I was reading the mood of the team [and] I think they were a little down from that loss," head coach
Jake Alvernia said. "It's hard to lose a game when the one mistake, were punished for it, and rightly so… but today the guys were ready. Final third stuff is definitely an area we're trying to focus on.
"Obviously we have to beat the next person that it's in front of us… [and] the confidence is there."
Missouri Baptist travels to Arkansas on Saturday for the second to last road game of the regular season to have it out with Lyon College on Oct. 22nd at 12:30 p.m.
