SPRINGFIELD – Missouri State men’s soccer (1-2) allowed three unanswered goals, all on headers, against the visiting Kansas City Roos (2-1-1) in a 3-2 loss Monday night. Senior forward Jesus Barea scored two goals and was a penalty kick save away from what would have been MoState’s 22nd hat trick in history.
“We’ve got to get back to work,” head coach Michael Seabolt said. “We’ve got to get back to work tomorrow. The guys want to do well and they are trying to do well.”
Barea got the scoring going early in the 13th minute by chasing down a deflected cross and spun a left-footed kick into the top left corner of the net. The goal marked four straight games that Barea has scored in with three of them being this season.
Kansas City responded in equal time, as about 12 minutes later midfielder Raphael Kistmann nailed a header past goalkeeper Harry Townsend on a cross from defender Ales Kohoutek. The Roos rinsed and repeated coming to the final minutes of the first half. Midfielder Julian Le Bourdoulous made a long outlet pass to defender Brevyn Cole, who then found Hector Taboada all alone for his first career goal.
The Bears had a huge opportunity to even the score right before the half. A foul inside the scoring box with 30 seconds before halftime put Barea up for a penalty kick. Barea sent his shot left but goalkeeper Brandon McGaugh chose his dive correctly, knocking the ball away. The Bears gave chase and set up Barea for another shot that went over the crossbar.
Missouri State outshot Kansas City 16-7 with Barea outshooting the Roos by himself with nine attempts. He also had more shots on goal than the opponent, putting up an accurate seven shots on net compared to four from Kansas City.
The momentum swung back to the Roos in the second half. Forward Luke Hoelting scored Kansas City’s third goal after a corner kick was sent back to Le Bourdoulous to give him a closer chance at a cross.
“We’ve got to defend better and defend our box better,” Seabolt said. “That’s all there is to it.”
Less than 10 minutes later, Barea earned his fifth goal of the season and second of the match on a shot from outside the box. He has earned a brace in back-to-back games and is already one goal shy of his career marker of six goals all last season.
Barea moved up to seventh in program history in career goals (24) and his nine shots elevated him to 199 in his career, surpassing both Doug Lascody (196) and Brad Jordan (198) for second all-time. He now only trails Jamal Sutton (236) on the all-time shots list.
The Bears had previously won the last 52 matches where they scored at least two goals.
“We’re going to get some rest, get ready for Friday and we’re going to keep improving,” Seabolt said. “I believe in this group. We all believe in this group. The group believes in each other and we’re going to be strong.”
The last time Missouri State allowed three goals at home was in 2022 in a shutout loss against Tulsa. The Bears will be back in action on Friday, Sept. 6 against that same Tulsa team at Betty & Bobby Allison South Stadium at 7:00 p.m. CT. Admission will be free.
