The Chart Online

Lions look to promising future
Eric Scott

Assistant Sports Editor

After a season full of close losses, the Lions will conclude their season on Friday.

Southern will take on Truman State University as part of a doubleheader with the women s teams of Southern and Truman. The men s game will take place at 7 p.m. at Bodon Field.

I think we re one or two players away from being a contender, said Geoff VanDeusen, head coach. We ve got a lot of those intangibles there.

In its game versus Rockhurst University on Oct. 30, the Lions fell, 3-0. Southern was out shot 15-9 by a Rockhurst squad that was ranked 14th in the nation and first in its region.

The high points of this year have been us staying in every game, VanDeusen said. We feel we re very close to being a strong contender.

Southern matched up against the University of Missouri-St. Louis on Nov. 2. After a scoreless first half, UMSL struck first at 59:13 in the second half. Sophomore forward Seamus O Donnell scored at 82:10 in the second half to tie the game at one apiece. UMSL then scored at 84:03 as the Lions lost 2-1 despite out shooting UMSL, 19-15. Junior goalkeeper Cesar Vazquez had six saves.

After the loss to Missouri-St. Louis, Southern faced NCAA Division 1 school Drury University. Sophomore midfielder Lucas Silva scored two goals, and O Donnell added three assists, but this was not enough to over throw Drury. Drury defeated the Lions, 6-3. The loss brought Southern s record to 5-9-1 for the season.

We ve been playing pretty well, said Patrick Hill, freshman midfielder, but against Drury, we gave up early goals, and our defense wasn t set.

Hill said the Lions need to work on switching the ball and putting the ball in the net.

We ve been creating some great opportunities to score, but for some reason we ve been snake bit, VanDeusen said. We ve hit everything but the back of the net.

VanDeusen said Southern is similar to where Rockhurst was last year.

Rockhurst lost a lot of close games last year like we have this year, he said. Now they are No. 1 in the region, so I think the guys are pretty excited about next year.

I think we always have a good chance against every team we play, Hill said.

VanDeusen said the game plan against Truman is to continue the things we ve been doing all year.

We just need to bring the intensity, he said.