FHSU Athletics
WICHITA FALLS, Texas – No. 19 Midwestern State scored two goals in the final seven minutes and beat No. 14 Fort Hays State 3-1 Thursday night, handing the Tigers their first loss of the season. The Tigers are now 3-1 on the season while Midwestern State moved to 2-0-2 overall.
The Tigers took an early lead in the match when Tadhg Walsh chipped a ball from the right side of the field over the Mustang defense and found Elias Ovelar Semeniuk at the back post for a header that snuck past the keeper. It was Semeniuk's second goal of the season and Walsh's fifth assist of the year, putting the Tigers up in the 15th minute.
Midwestern State countered when 2023 D2CCA National Player of the Year Mere Escobar was set up for a goal on a nice feed inside the box from Liam Pritchard. The tying goal came in the 37th minute. The goals for both FHSU and MSU were the only shots on goal in the first half in a strong defensive battle.
Fort Hays State ran into trouble in the 70th minute when they had a red card issued and had to play a man down the final 20 minutes of the match. FHSU was managing it well until a well-placed header in box by Samuele Muroni went past Tiger keeper Jorge Valentin to put the Mustangs on top in the 84th minute. With the Tigers frantically trying to find opportunity late and playing aggressively, a three-on-one break for the Mustangs turned into Escobar's second goal of the match with under 20 seconds to play to seal the result.
After scoring on their only shot of the first half, the Tigers reeled off 10 shots in the second half and finished with 11. They contained the Mustangs to just four shots each half and led the overall shot count by three. The Tigers were issued seven cautions in the match aside from the one red and five of those happened in a seven-minute span after the red card was issued. The Mustangs were cautioned three times.
UP NEXT
The Tigers look to bounce back with a noon match against Eastern New Mexico on Saturday (Sept. 21) in Wichita Falls. The Greyhounds will enter the match 1-2-2 overall after a loss to No. 17 ranked Southern Nazarene on Thursday evening.