The No. 5 SMU men’s soccer team was stunned on Wednesday afternoon by the FIU Golden Panthers (4-13-2) in the opening game of the Conference USA tournament. The Mustangs were heavily favored to beat the Golden Panthers but lost by a score of 3-1.
In their only other meeting of the season, the Mustangs beat FIU coincidentally by a score of 3-1. This was the Golden Panthers’ first win over a ranked opponent since 2004 when they topped No. 14 Hartwick.
The Mustangs opened up the game with a goal by junior forward Scott Geppert in the seventh minute of action. Senior defender Adrian Chevannes assisted Geppert on the goal with a centering pass. Geppert knocked the ball into the lower right corner of the goal for his seventh goal of the season.
With the goal, Geppert is now tied for the overall team lead in goals scored with both junior forward Richard Oliva and junior midfielder Bruno Guarda. The goal by Geppert was the only scoring in the first half .
The 1-0 lead looked promising for the Mustangs until the Golden Panthers strung together three straight goals in the second half.
FIU tied up the game in the 55th minute of the game when Juan Guerra, a First Team All-Conference player, scored after beating an SMU defender and hitting a strike past goalkeeper Steve Sandbo.
The Golden Panthers broke the deadlock in the 75th minute when Christian Caporaletti buried the ball in the back of the net on an assist from Ricardo Ferrer.
Once the Mustangs were down by a goal, they pushed forward their players in order to play aggressively on the offensive end on the field. The tradeoff to aggressive offense was their defensive capability.
In the 86th minute, Steven Cabas broke through the SMU defense on a counter that resulted in their third goal of the night. It is highly unlikely that Cabas could have broken through if the Mustangs were not desperately trying to tie up the game.
Nevertheless, the Golden Panthers beat the Mustangs for only their fourth win on the season. Wednesday night’s loss to the Golden Panthers was their first since joining Conference USA.
The Mustangs will have almost two weeks to practice for their next game in the College Cup. The College Cup begins on Nov. 23 and the Mustangs should host at least the first two rounds. However, the loss against FIU puts SMU in potential danger of losing their ability to host later round games.
