Springfield Standard

Missouri State University's men's soccer team defeated South Florida 3-1 on Friday night, giving the Bulls their first loss of the season in an American Conference match held in Tampa, Florida. South Florida entered the match with a record of 7-0-5 and 3-0-1 in conference play, while the Bears improved to 4-5-2 overall and 2-3-0 in the conference.

Missouri State took an early lead in the fifth minute when senior James Jennings scored with help from teammates Ollie Bate and Alex Matthews. Jennings commented after the game, "It felt amazing personally, and then also as a team scoring early just feels like it gets us going and kick-starts the momentum on which we want play, which I felt like we improved on throughout the game."

South Florida equalized in the 20th minute with a penalty kick. In the second half, Missouri State regained control. Senior Fumiya Shiraishi created an opportunity in the 62nd minute that led to sophomore Victor Wachowicz scoring his first goal for the Bears. Wachowicz said, "Fumi set it up for me on a platter, and all I had to do was tap it in, but I am very happy for the team and glad I could chip in with the goal."

Eight minutes later, junior Diego Real added a third goal for Missouri State. Real stated, "I am really, really happy because it was a big win after a bit of a slump that we've been in, and I am happy personally and for the team because we were kind of suffering. It was nice to get the goal to seal the win that we needed to put us back on the map."

Missouri State had nine total shots with five on target, while South Florida recorded 11 shots but only two on goal. The Bears had three corner kicks compared to seven for South Florida.

Head Coach Michael Seabolt expressed satisfaction with his team's performance. "I am just super happy for the guys as we've played really well, and we've been deserving of some good results and tonight we finally did. South Florida is a very good team, and you can see why they were undefeated, but our guys were more than up to the challenge. We're deserving winners and now we just stay on task and get ready for Drake on Tuesday."

The Bears will next play Drake at home at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium on Tuesday, October 21 at 6:00 p.m. Admission to all home games is free for the season. Coach Seabolt mentioned additional activities for Tuesday's game: "We have an amazing night planned on Tuesday. We play Drake at 6:00 p.m. with Sporting KC coming down to Springfield and then at 8:30 p.m. we will be hosting a Springfield Public Schools matchup with Parkview and Central High schools playing. This is our second annual high school derby on campus which is a great way to promote MoState and our local soccer community, so a big thank you to Josh Scott the Springfield Public Schools Athletic Director for working with us on the event and Patrick Ransdell and all our staff at Missouri State for working together to make it possible."