Box Score EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE men's soccer must wait until Monday to find out its fate after falling, 1-0 to Drake in the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament Sunday afternoon at Korte Stadium.
"I give full credit to Drake for a great year," SIUE Head Coach Mario Sanchez said. "They have definitely earned the opportunity to make the NCAA tournament. Obviously we're disappointed but we've had a lot of success this year and we've accomplished a lot of things to be proud of."
The loss snapped a nine-game unbeaten streak for the Cougars, who fell to 12-4-2 overall. Drake improved to 12-4-3.
The only goal of the game came in the 78th minute from Drake's Paul Ciszewski. A ball got through a crowded 18-yard box before SIUE goalkeeper Kyle Dal Santo cleared it away leading to a corner kick. Nic Jaimes sent the corner towards the back post where it was then head twice by the Cougar defense, but not completely cleared. Ciszewski then volleyed in a rocket from the top of the box into the upper corner.
SIUE held a wide margin in shots with a 13-4 advantage for the game. The Cougars had four shots on goal and Drake goalkeeper Darrin MacLeod made four saves to preserve the shutout. SIUE outshot the Bulldogs 9-1 in the first half, including three shots on goal.
"The first half we started well, but we didn't finish our chances. In any game of soccer whether it's the final or a regular season game when you give a team the chance to stick around that can happen and it did."
Jabari Danzy led the Cougars with six shots, including two on goal. Justin Bilyeu and Mohamed Awad each had two shots. Bilyeu had one shot on goal.
"You have to give everything to give yourself a chance and we didn't do that for 90 minutes," Sanchez added. "We did it for 45 minutes in the first half."
The Cougars will find out if their season continues when the NCAA announces the 48 teams which will make up the 2015 tournament. The selection show will be shown exclusively on NCAA.com at 12 central time.
"It's unfortunate to lose the last game which could decide a lot but you have to look at our body of work and what we did in-region and out-of-region, even nationally. I have told our guys over and over 'I think we definitely deserve it' but now it is out of our hands. We'll see what happens tomorrow."
Bilyeu and Dal Santo were joined by Austin Ledbetter on the MVC All-Tournament team.
