The SMU men’s soccer team lost for the first time in 11 games last Saturday night against the Kentucky Wildcats. The Mustangs dropped to 11-3-2 and 6-1-1 in conference while the Wildcats improved to 5-2-0 in conference and 7-8-2 overall.
Saturday night’s loss opens up the door for the Tulsa Golden Hurricane to win the conference. The Mustangs have played all of their games and have a total of 19 points. The Golden Hurricane have 17 points with one game remaining and would win the regular season conference title with a win in their final game.
The Mustangs got on the board early when junior forward Scott Geppert scored his fifth goal of the season in the sixth minute of the game. Junior midfielder Bruno Guarda got his team-leading seventh assist on the year when he crossed the ball into the box finding Geppert.
Guarda leads the Mustangs and the conference in total points with 21. Guarda is also tied for the team lead in goals with junior forward Richard Oliva. Each of them has seven goals.
The early goal was the only scoring in the first half and gave SMU a 1-0 lead.
Kentucky came out of halftime with a renewed vigor and tied the game in the 60th minute. The Wildcat’s Tim Crone scored the equalizer for his fourth goal of the season. The ball was crossed in from the far left side of the field by freshman C.J. Tappel, who hit a diving Crone.
It took the Wildcats only five minutes to take the lead when Crone scored his second goal of the game. The ball was crossed into the box again when Crone headed it past SMU’s Steve Sandbo for his fifth goal of the year.
The Mustangs were 5-0 against the Wildcats coming into the game and completely dominated them last year by a combined score of 6-0 in their two meetings.
The Mustangs dominated most of the team statistical categories, but could not overcome the physical style of the Wildcats.
Conference play is finished for the Mustangs, but SMU has two home games this week before the conference tournament. They take place on Wednesday and Friday against Bradley and Central Arkansas, respectively.
