SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – The University of Incarnate Word men's soccer team picked up an impressive win on Thursday night defeating Houston Baptist, 3-1 for their third Western Athletic Conference win of the season.

It was a rainy night at Benson Stadium, but that did not stop the Cardinal (7-6, 3-4) attack as they came out looking to score early on the Huskies. The Cardinals (7-7-1, 3-3-1) produced many scoring chances early in the match and Noah Keats (Exeter, Eng./The King's School) delivered the first goal of the match in the 17th minute on a beautiful cross from Ben Conway (Wigan, Eng./Hawkley Hall) to the middle of the box that Keats put in the right corner of the net to give UIW a 1-0 advantage.

The goal by Keats was the only one of the half for both teams, but the Cardinals outshot Houston Baptist 11-2 in the first half and the Cardinals also added six corner kicks in the first half.  Not only was the UIW offense creating chances, but the defense also played a big part in the half by limiting the HBU chances.  Joe Brown (Nottingham, Eng./The Becket School) and Jonathan Camarena (El Paso/Del Valle HS) led the Cardinals defense and both players were a brick wall not allowing the Houston Baptist forwards to get by them.
           
Much like the first half, the Cardinals came out attacking in the second half which led to a goal from Conway in the 68th minute on a long pass from the goalie Chase Terrien (Trophy Club/Byron Nelson) to Dylan Kelly (Tuscon, AZ/Salpointe Catholic HS) who chipped the ball past the defender and set up Conway for the second goal of the night for the Cardinals. 

The Huskies responded with a series of nice passes which led to a goal from Dominick Faletto in the 71st minute to cut the Cardinal lead to 2-1 late in the match. Coming down to the wire as Houston Baptist pushed for the equalizing goal in the late minutes, Conway was able to connect with his second goal of the match with less than a minute remaining on a free kick from 29 yards out to ice the match for the Cardinals at 3-1.

For the match, the Cardinals totaled up 22 shots opposed to 14 by the Huskies to go along with 10 corner kicks.  In net, Therrien tallied up four saves for the night and Keats led the team in shots with seven. Conway was the player of the night for the Cardinals with two goals and one assists to lead the Cardinals to the 3-1 victory.

Chance Pope made eight saves for the Huskies to keep them in the game.  The Cardinals are back in action on Sunday at 6 p.m. against visiting UT Rio Grande Valley.
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