Aug. 25, 2001
Indianapolis, Ind. - The Western Kentucky men's soccer team dropped a 3-2 decision to IUPUI in an exhibition match Saturday night. It was the first action for the Hilltoppers in the 2001 season.
"I am not disappointed with the loss," said Hilltopper head coach David Holmes. "It was a very physical game and both teams made some mistakes. We will be able to learn a lot from this."
IUPUI opened the scoring at the 21:59 mark on a goal by Matt Hodges. However, Western was able to come back to tie the game at 1-1 on a penalty kick by Ben Buerger (Sr., Louisville, Ky.) in the 29th minute. Neither team scored the remainder of the half, keeping the game tied at halftime.
Western took its first lead of the match at the 61:14 mark on an unassisted goal from the outside by Brandon Thompson (Sr., Owensboro, Ky.). However, IUPUI added two late goals to eventually win the match. Jason Nolen evened the score at 2-2 with a goal a the 76:24 mark, and with two seconds remaining in regulation, Patrick King scored on a corner kick to give the Jaguars the 3-2 victory.
"I thought we got very good play from our seniors tonight," added Holmes. "They displayed very good leadership on the field, and that will be a plus down the road."
The Hilltoppers open the regular season this Friday (Aug. 31) with a 7 p.m. (CDT) home match against David Lipscomb University.
- WKU -
