SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of the Incarnate Word men's soccer team fell to an unforgiving UNLV side on Friday night, as both teams battled it out for first place in the Western Athletic Conference.  A 3-2 decision stopped the Cardinals from going 5-0 in the conference on homecoming weekend.
 
                The Cardinals (5-7, 4-1) brought one of their strongest home performances against the Rebels (11-3-1, 5-7) but were unable to make a comeback after a third goal in the 69^th minute tipped the balance towards UNLV.
 
                After only two minutes of play, the visiting side stunned UIW with an early goal that was scored off of a cross by junior defender, Bradley Kamdem. From outside the box, Kamdem sent the ball into the danger zone to find Rodrigo Fuentes amongst a handful of players, who was then able to head the ball past Kieran O'Boyle (Blackpool, UK/St Mary's Catholic College) and into the back of the net.
 
                From then on, the Cardinals faced an uphill battle that they were not able to conquer, with goals that only equalized, but did not exceed the Rebels count. The first of these came from junior forward Dylan Kelly (Tucson, AZ/Salpointe Catholic) who headed home his fourth goal of the season after Alejandro de la Garza (Mission, TX/Sharyland) assisted with a cross from the left hand side.
 
                A spree of two chances followed for the Cardinals with Victor Pinal (Dallas, TX/Skyline) skimming the far post from a long rang shot and Ben Conway (Wigan, UK/Hawkley Hall) failing to connect from a cross from de la Garza. In the 35^th minute the Rebels then went into the lead when a Cardinal defender attempted to head the ball back to O'Boyle, but allowed Julian Dragomir to score as the header fell short.
 
                With the score at 2-1 going into the second half, the Cardinals rallied to make it 2-2 in the 58^th minute. A corner kick taken by de la Garza was met by Pinal on the volley and a clean strike put the ball into the right side of the net.
 
                The Rebels continued to apply pressure and 11 minutes later took the game to 3-2 with a goal from Kevin Partida. Danny Musovski began the attack with a shot that was deflected by O'Boyle only to find Partida running in to finish from two yards out. 
 
                The remainder of the game saw UIW attempt to make a comeback, with Kelly leading the side in pursuit of an equalizer, however some missed chances kept the score at 3-2 and gave UNLV the win.
                Despite the outcome, the Cardinals outshot the Rebels 16-8, while UNLV had a 7-5 shots on goal advantage. O'Boyle made a total of 4 saves and Ryan Harding made a total of 3 to earn the win.
 
                The Cardinals are back in action over homecoming weekend as they play Grand Canyon University on Sunday at 2 p.m.