DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University men's soccer team bested UNLV, 4-3, to earn its first win of the 2019 season on Friday night at Cownie Soccer Complex.
"What a fun and entertaining night of college soccer and a deserved win for our guys," Drake head coach
Gareth Smith said.
Nate Seaberg opened the scoring in the ninth minute with a header into the bottom left corner of the net following a long assist from
Cole Poppen. It was the first goal of Seaberg's career.
Erik Fahner doubled Drake's lead in the 26
th minute with a goal off an assist from
Austin Smythe. The score marked the first of Fahner's career.
Smythe tallied another assist just before halftime when he found
Fred Frimpong to put the Bulldogs ahead 3-0 going into the break.
Antonio Melendez, who helped Drake control play all night, was also credited with an assist on the play. Frimpong netted his first goal as a Bulldog.
"Our first half performance is one of the most complete team performances in my time at Drake and is the standard we have set for ourselves," Smith said. "We dominated possession against a very good team, created a number of chances and we were clinical with our finishing."
UNLV started the second half on fire with goals by Bryan Martinez-Serrano and Timo Mehlich in the 53
rd and 54
th minutes, respectively, to pull the Rebels within a goal.
Juan Louis capped the night of firsts with the first goal of his career in the 80
th minute. The decisive score came off a pass from
Tristan Stotler.
"A lot of credit goes to our forwards because their hard work on the training ground over these past few weeks paid off tonight," Smith said. "Especially
Juan Louis, who scored the winner this evening."
UNLV wouldn't go down without a fight, however, as the Rebels' Nick Williams found the back on the net in the 84
th minute to make the score 4-3.
"We still have room for continued improvement in regards to how we manage the game as we allowed them back into it in the second half," Smith said. "So that's an area we will revisit with the guys in the lead-up to our next match.
The Bulldogs' defense dug in and shut the door to preserve the result. Drake's attack registered a season-high 17 shots and held possession in UNLV's defensive box for 20 percent of the match.
"Overall this was an entertaining night of college soccer, a great performance and result," Smith said.
Drake returns to action on Monday at 3 p.m. at DePaul.
