EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Western Illinois scored twice in an eight-minute span in the second half and earned a come-from-behind 2-1 win over SIUE in Ohio Valley Conference men's soccer at Korte Stadium Thursday.
The Cougars dropped to 3-4-2 in OVC play and 4-10-2 overall. WIU improved to 2-3-4 in the league and 4-10-4 overall.
Evan Howard opened the scoring in the 14th minute on an SIUE corner kick. Carles Zomeño delivered the corner to the edge of the six yard box at the back post, where Howard rose up and headed it home for his team-leading eighth goal of the year.
It was Howard who earned the corner for the Cougars. His left-footed attempt was saved out of play by Leatherneck goalkeeper Micah Ramirez which led to the SIUE corner.
WIU followed a similar script for the game-tying goal in the 59th minute. Xavier Gagnon headed home after a corner kick from Diego Porras.
Porras scored his own to give Western Illinois the lead in the 67th minute after taking a through ball from Liam Gainey.
SIUE outshot Western Illinois overall 19-16 in the game, but the Leathernecks had nine shots on goal compared to six for SIUE. SIUE goalkeeper Noah Scheidweiler made a career-high seven saves in the loss.
The Cougars will finish the regular season Sunday on the road at Eastern Illinois. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m.
