SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. — Texas Wesleyan (8-7-5) lost to No. 19 John Brown (Ark.) (12-4-1) 2-0 on Saturday in the Sooner Athletic Tournament semifinals. Texas Wesleyan finished with 14 shots and four on goal, but was held scoreless as No. 19 John Brown (Ark.) scored once in each half.
Texas Wesleyan put together an early attacking stretch in the first half, earning four corner kicks between 6:55 and 10:57 and getting shots from
Walter Palacios,
Peter Tenorio, Mehdi Def and
Nathaniel Neang while the match remained scoreless. Neang's effort at 12:41 forced a save from Juan Almanza, but John Brown broke through at 16:31 when Constantin Bauer scored off assists from Alejandro Gallardo and Andres Pereira to make it 1-0. Texas Wesleyan looked for an answer with Tenorio missing wide in the 21st minute, then generated another late corner in the 44th minute that led to a
Marco Arduino shot wide. Despite recording seven shots and five corner kicks in the half, Texas Wesleyan went into halftime trailing 1-0.
Texas Wesleyan opened the second half with immediate pressure, getting a
Diogo Stefane shot stopped by a defensive save and a Def attempt blocked, but John Brown scored at 48:47 through Chriss Salinas off an Alejandro Gallardo assist to make it 2-0. Texas Wesleyan kept pushing from there, with Tenorio taking a corner in the 51st minute before
Leonardo Coronado had a shot blocked and
Rudy Gonzalez put a header on frame that Juan Almanza saved. The visitors generated seven shots and five corner kicks in the half, including late attempts from Neang and
Rudy Gonzalez and consecutive Tenorio corners in the 87th minute.
Henrique Soares put Texas Wesleyan's final shot on goal at 88:28, but Almanza made the save and John Brown closed out the 2-0 result.
Rudy Gonzalez finished with two shots and put one on goal for Texas Wesleyan. Neang also recorded two shots, including one on goal.
