LEBANON, Ill. – The UIndy men's soccer team fell in a back-and-forth affair against McKendree, 3-2, on Friday night.
Before tonight, last three contests between these two sides had all ended in 1-1 draws, with the last win for either side being in 2021 when the Greyhounds took a 5-2 win over the Bearcats.
This is the third loss in GLVC play for the Greyhounds in the team's last four outings.
HOW IT HAPPENED
After two early chances from Alvaro Sanchez and Alex Ziermann were both saved, the Bearcats struck the game's first blow. Matthias Roitner's clean up effort on a deflected corner kick gave McKendree the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
Keerti Unnamatla kept the Hounds' deficit to only one by racking up four saves to close out the first half, including one in the dying seconds of the first half.
Out of the break, both teams were looking to find the game's second goal, and the Bearcats were the ones to do so. Alonso Romero Carmona struck a wonderful free kick from 25 yards out that beat a diving Unnamatla to double McKendree's lead after 52 minutes.
The game ended with blow after blow from both teams, as there were three goals combined between both teams in the final 12 minutes of the contest. The first of those three goals came from Roman Beko, when he bobbed and weaved through Bearcat defenders to curl home a crafty solo goal, cutting the lead to one.
That one goal deficit didn't last long, as Morgan Dance pushed the lead back out to two in the 86th minute. Just three minutes later UIndy responded when Kabiru Gafar whipped in a cross to Joey Longo who headed home the cross to put the pressure back on the Bearcats to maintain the 3-2 lead.
But the Bearcats were able to see out the game's final two minutes to take home the Bearcats first win over UIndy since 2019.
INSIDE THE BOX
- Beko scored his first goal of the 2025 season, and his first since 2024 against Rockhurst.
- Longo netted his third goal of the season.
- Gafar tallied an assist for the second straight game, and added to his season total of five.
- Eight of the 11 starters recorded a shot for the Hounds tonight.
UP NEXT
The Hounds will look to get back on track on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. against Illinois Springfield, in the team's second to last game of the 2025 regular season.
