The Bears beat the Bellarmine Knights 1-0 after an early goal at the ASUN conference opener. 

On Saturday, Central Arkansas hit the road and paid a visit to Louisville, Kentucky where they scored the only goal of the game five minutes in.

Coach Frank Kohlenstein said, “The biggest positive is we went on the road to a very tough place to play and got an ASUN win.”

“The team really had to grind and be locked in to get this victory at Bellarmine,” Kohlenstein said. 

Senior forward and midfielder Devonte Richards scored the one and only goal with the help of senior forward and midfielder Tajio James and senior midfielder Sohma Ichikawa.

James passed the ball to Ichikawa, who sent it to Richards, who ultimately landed the ball in the net. 

Junior goalkeeper Javier Ramirez said, “The early goal definitely allowed us to breathe during the game.”

At the tenth minute of the match, junior forward Pietro Fontana nearly doubled the score but was prevented by the Bellarmine goalkeeper, Peter Van Euwen. 

During the first half, Bellarmine attempted its only shot on the goal, but Ramirez managed to save his team.  

Throughout the game, Bellarmine made efforts to score but continuously hit the crossbar. 

During halftime, the Bears changed their technique to stay in the lead.

Ramirez said, “The halftime talk was purely tactical. We changed our defensive tactics playing with Mathéo as central back and also having a zone man in set pieces.”

During the first 15 minutes of the second half, both the Bears and the Knights traded 12 shots. 

Sophomore defender Elijah Bishop and graduate student defender and midfielder Kevin Ventura sent Bellarmine’s long passes to the other side of the field, protecting their 1-0 score.

Ramirez said, “We expected this type of game, because Bellarmine is a strong team at home, so we trained a lot on defensive side throw-ins and defensive corners, being focused on clearing the ball as far as possible.”

“I learned more about small-field football. It’s hard to spend the 90 minutes receiving crosses with the big guys of Bellarmine in our box,” Ramirez said.

Kohlenstein’s goal for the season is to “get better every training session and every competition in order to become better athletes and better people.”

“Our targets in meeting our goal is to win the conference and the NCAA Championship,” Kohlenstein said. 

Kohlenstein said “many players played well” against Bellarmine and everyone “made major contributions to the team winning 1-0.”

“Everyone on the team is involved in attack and defending but a few had to step forward in order to help achieve the victory in unfamiliar roles, not the least of which was Matheo Francou,” Kohlenstein said. 

“It was 90 minutes of focus and effort that got the team the victory, of course scoring the goal made a difference but an effort was needed throughout in order to get the shutout,” Kohlenstein said. “We learned we can work together to achieve victory despite being in a tough situation and a hostile environment.”

Kohlenstein said, “We hope to continue to improve and enjoy this well-won victory for today and then move on to being ready for the next conference challenge on the road before returning home to beautiful Conway on Oct. 5.”