Men’s soccer team lose to Blazers despite late-half surge
By Chad Murray

The men’s soccer team dropped the first of three straight home matches Wednesday, losing to Conference USA foe Alabama-Birmingham, 4-0.

“It’s obviously not what we planned on, but it’s what we were dealt,” coach Blake Amos said. “(There were) a couple of mistakes and four goals. Thankfully in the second half we stepped up and played a little bit better.”

The Frogs (2-11-0, 1-4-0 C-USA) fell behind early via a goal from UAB (6-3-3, 2-1-2) midfielder Jermie Frankson, who also scored in the second half before leaving the game with an injury.

The team made offensive adjustments in the second half, after failing to get a shot on Blazer goalkeeper Clint Baumstark. And while the Frogs did manage to put six shots on goal in the final 45 minutes, they still couldn’t score a goal.

“We just tried to organize them a little bit better, getting them higher up on the field to make sure they have better chances to score goals,” Amos said. “We had chances finally in the second half. We had no shots at halftime and we ended up with six. At least we created a little more offense out of it.”

Said senior midfielder Nick Browne: “We just didn’t play good at all today. There’s no two ways about it, we didn’t play good.”

The game against UAB marked the first game of four in a 10-day stretch.

These games are some of the Frogs’ final chances of gaining ground in the C-USA standings and gaining a spot in the conference tournament.

The team’s next match is against East Carolina at 1 p.m Sunday at Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium. In the Pirates’ most recent conference game, they had their three-game winning streak snapped at the hands of the Memphis Tigers and are right on the bubble for qualifying for the C-USA tournament.