EVANSVILLE, Ind.– The University of Southern Indiana men's soccer team earned its best start since 1986 with a 3-0 victory over the University of Illinois Springfield Friday night in Springfield, Illinois. The Screaming Eagles rise to 3-0-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the GLVC, while the Prairie Stars fall to 2-1-0, 0-1-0 GLVC.
The scoring began early in the first half when freshman forward
Kasper Bjoro (Oslo, Norway) slipped the ball past the UIS goalkeeper from near the top of the box at the 10:23 mark. On the goal, junior forward
Braiden Acton (Evansville, Indiana) found junior midfielder
Michael Sass (New Palestine, Indiana) open near midfield. Sass saw Bjoro sprinting forward and booted a deep kick that found Bjoro's right foot. With the keeper out, Bjoro slipped the ball past the keeper and into the net.
Holding a 1-0 advantage, the Screaming Eagles were once again lifted by the boot of Bjoro at 16:46. The freshman found a crevasse between the keeper and the right post off of a cross from sophomore midfielder
Riley Belding (Columbus, Indiana) to put the Eagles up 2-0.
USI would get on the board again just past halftime at 48:47 when Acton received a pass from senior forward
Josh Weinzapfel (Evansville, Indiana). Acton gathered himself and fired the ball into the back of the net to give the Eagles a 3-0 advantage.
USI was stellar again defensively posting their second-straight shutout. Between the posts, sophomore goalkeeper
Adam Zehme (Orland Park, Illinois) remained unscathed on the season in 244 minutes in goal. The sophomore made four saves on the evening and defended against seven Prairie Star corners. The backline of the Eagles defense continued to impress helping to not allow a goal during Zehme's time spent in goal.
The Eagles dominated UIS in shots, 15-7, and shots-on-goal, 8-4.
With the victory, USI opens the season 3-0 for the first time since 1986, when the Eagles opened the season 5-0.
USI returns home to Strassweg Field on Sunday afternoon to complete the opening weekend of GLVC play against McKendree University at 2:30 pm.