LONGVIEW, Texas - A very physical and rough first half led the LeTourneau University men's soccer team in a 1-0 hole and down a man at halftime, eventually dropping a 2-0 loss at home to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in American Southwest Conference action at the Joyce Family Athletic Village in Longview, Texas on Thursday, September 14th. 

LETU is now 0-3-2 on the year and 0-1-0 in the ASC while Crusaders picked up their fourth win to improve to 4-1-0 and 1-0-0 in the ASC. 

The YellowJackets would stand their ground early on in the game, matching the physicality of the visiting Cru early on and turning away multiple UMHB shots. Follow a yellow card on UMHB at the 15:15 mark, Austin Pavatt would get carded with a yellow card on a penalty in the box leading to a penalty kick for Mary Hardin-Baylor that would find the back of the net. 

Trailing 1-0 at the 19:03 mark, LeTourneau would fire off the next four shots to put the pressure on the Crusaders, leading to another Crusader playing getting a yellow card with 18 minutes remaining in the half. Things would start to settle down before consecutive yellow cards on Eduardo Barron just 5:11 apart would see the sophomore sent off with a red card one minute and 31 seconds before halftime, forcing the YellowJackets to play the final 46:31 of the game a man down while trailing 1-0. 

UMHB would double their lead in the 52nd minute (51:29) on a goal off a corner kick that would lead to a scramble in the middle of the box where the ball would land at the feet of Julio Mar leading to the goal. LETU would keep pushing and forcing the ball into the attacking third of the field, putting up four shots in the half. 

"We had some chances tonight, and we showed a lot of heart tonight" said head coach Matthew Haesecke in a postgame interview. "We had a lot of freshman that were able to come on and get some minutes and show that they can play in big games." "We just have to be able to get guys healthy and ready to play Saturday."

UMHB held a 17-10 shots advantage in the game and held the YellowJackets to just one corner kick while taking six of their own. 

Zachariah Malik would come off the bench to lead LETU with three shots total while Miguel Cabrera played all 90 minutes in the net, making two saves. 

The first weekend of American Southwest Conference action will conclude for the YellowJackets on Saturday, September 16th with a 4:30 p.m. kickoff against Concordia University Texas.