FORT WORTH, TX - Texas Wesleyan University Men's Soccer (5-5, 1-2 SAC) fell 3-1 to the Oklahoma City Stars (7-2, 2-1), conceding three goals before the Rams managed to get a good look for George Battersby in the 56th minute.

For Battersby, it was his third goal of 2018, assisted by Claudio Barraza. After the goal, the Rams out-shot the Stars 11-6 including five looks in the final three minutes - three of which were blocked and one save from Oklahoma City goalkeeper Andre Salvador.

The last 35 minutes wasn't the issue - the first 55 were. In the 10th minute, Aboubakr Diallo put one to his head for his 11th goal of the season, assisted by Petar Djurdjevic. In the 20th minute, Andrija Sreckovic nearly had another header, but banged it against the post. In the 34th minute, the Diallo-Djurdjevic combination struck again. Diallo's 12 goals came into the game already leading the conference. His 12 goals now ranks fifth amongst all NAIA teams.

"We got off to a slow start, which you can't do in this conference," said Head Coach Cole Sweetser. "I need to do a better job of having the guys ready for the first whistle. We were happy with how we played the last 15-20 minutes of the first half and thought we had the better run of the game in the second half. OCU did a good job of punishing us for the slow start and they took their chances well."

James Beattie attacked Texas Wesleyan goalkeeper Bastian Blumenberg aggressively to start the second half, forcing a save in the 49th minute and then putting one in the back of the net six minutes later.

The two teams combined to get off 35 shots, 12 caused trouble and just eight were saved. The six shots on goal for Texas Wesleyan came from six different players. That hadn't happened since September 13's 5-0 domination against Texas A&M-Texarkana.

Resetting the season, Diego Alvarez leads the Rams with five goals, Battersby's three assists tops all passers, while Blumenburg has saved 70% of the shots that have come his way in nine games played.

WHAT'S NEXT:
Two road games - Saturday at Southwestern Christian and Tuesday at Southwest Assemblies of God. SAGU, like the Rams, are 1-2 in the SAC. Southwestern Christian has pulled ahead to the top of the conference - now 3-0.