Men’s soccer plays to scoreless draw in home opener

Story by MAYAN PAZ Photos by PARKER NISBETH

Tiger Media Network

FHSU men’s soccer opened the home slate of their schedule against one of the best teams in the nation, No. 3 CSU-Pueblo, on Thursday. This top-25 matchup lived up to the billing as both the Tigers and ThunderWolves played to a 0-0 draw in a physical, back-and-forth game.  

On a windy evening in Hays, FHSU opened the match with the wind at their backs and created more opportunities and dominated time of possession. The Tigers managed five shots compared to just two for CSU-Pueblo and also had eight corner kicks while the ThunderWolves had none. 

However, the main theme of the first half was dictated by the officiating, with over 15 minutes of stoppage time and seven yellow cards assessed.

FHSU Head Coach Alex Nichols addressed the issue in his post-game interview when asked how the team can maintain focus with the recurring stops in play.

“They stayed focused. We just didn’t do a good enough job on all the set-piece opportunities we had,” Nichols said. “We didn’t do a good enough job tonight. We didn’t do badly; we generated a ton, but we just didn’t execute the final things.”

In the second half, the stoppage of time continued with five additional yellow cards assessed, including one ejection for a CSU-Pueblo assistant coach after receiving a second yellow card that carried over from the first half.  

On the field, an aerial back-and-forth game was established with long balls played by both teams and many set pieces in the center of the field. The best opportunity to score belonged to the Tigers’ Paraguayan star Elias Ovelar Semeniuk, who missed a one-on-one opportunity with the opponents’ goalkeeper and the chance to score the winning goal. 

One of the best performers for FHSU was midfielder Joseph Street. The senior transfer student from Warner University contested and challenged the ThunderWolves’ midfield efforts. Additionally, he was in charge of the throw-ins for the Tigers and introduced an ability to throw the ball long into the box, creating dangerous threats for the Tigers out of every throw-in.

Street said that this is a skill he has had for a while, but Nichols really enabled him to use that and integrate it with the Tigers’ game plan.

“I used to do it before, but I’m very fortunate for Coach Nichols, because he sees it as a weapon, and my other schools didn’t as much, so it’s very fun to use it here, where guys are eager, like Mario (Leal Vales) and Dimitry (Tchantcheu) there,” Street said. “They want to head the ball. They want to score that. They’re They’re excited for those throws.”

Nichols addressed the throw-in drill and said he was happy with how Street executed it, but that the team should be better at responding and converting those opportunities. 

“We just have to do a little bit better job with what happens after the throw. We had opportunities across the board; we just need to get better, but we wasted probably 30 opportunities tonight,” he said. “When you have 30 opportunities in and around the 18-yard box, you’ve got to put one of those away, but it’s soccer, and you know sometimes it happens, and we chose an awesome sport, but one that can be kind of evil sometimes, even though it’s awesome.”

FHSU went on the road on Saturday, defeating Thomas More in a neutral-site game in Columbia, Missouri. The Tigers return to FHSU Soccer Stadium on Thursday, hosting Lubbock Christian. First kick is scheduled for 7 p.m.