PORTLAND, Ore. – Nicholas Denley scored twice and the Montana State University Billings Yellowjackets fell 4-1 to Concordia University Saturday afternoon at Hilken Community Stadium in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference men's soccer game. Despite out-shooting the Cavaliers 16-15 (7-6 on goal), one goal scored by
Shantik Bedrosian was not enough to push MSUB to a win in their second soccer game of the week.
Denley put away his first marker for CU in the eighth minute. After receiving a pass from Daniel Hagopian, Denley beat goalkeeper
Jessy Martin from the left wing. Kyle Dearborn made it 2-0 in the 25
th minute after nifty one touch passing down the right side from Brandon McCurtain and Brendan Laun led to the scoring chance.
MSUB's
Shantik Bedrosian cut the deficit to one after he shot low to the left side on a penalty kick, seven minutes into the second half. CU netminder Kenneth Symmes dove in the opposite direction on the shot. It was Bedrosian's second goal of the season.
Seven minutes after the Bedrosian goal, Denley added an insurance marker on a nifty touch upon reception of a through pass from Oscar Rosas. The Cavaliers put the game out of reach when Christian Thyron scored in the 80
th minute, an assist having been added to Ayden Lawes.
"We didn't start the game the way we wanted and found ourselves in a difficult situation right away," said MSUB head coach
Thomas Chameraud. "After going down 2-0, we still had many chances to score but struggled to find the back of the net. I liked our reaction in the second half and we felt we were back in it with the penalty kick goal. CU's third goal really killed our momentum and it became too hard to come back. Credit to Concordia for playing a great game. We could see they were fresher than us after not playing for the last two weeks. Even so, it's not an excuse because we have the quality to perform better. We have another tough road trip next week and we will have to make corrections so we can have good results at Saint Martin's and Seattle Pacific.
Martin made two saves and took the loss in goal for MSUB. Symmes made six saves to earn the win for Concordia.
The Yellowjackets (4-4-1, 1-1-0 GNAC) remain away from home next weekend with two GNAC games on the schedule. They will see Saint Martin's University Thursday, October 10 at 3:30 p.m. followed by Seattle Pacific University Saturday, October 12 at 7 p.m. Both games will be available to stream online through the MSUB men's soccer schedule page. Last season, the 'Jackets finished 4-7-1 in conference with a pair of 3-2 losses to SMU and SPU.
THE BUZZ: Shantik Bedrosian scored his second goal of the season and was tabbed St. Vincent Healthcare player of the game.
