Boxscore

Missouri State had shut out only one of its previous seven opponents, but the Bears found a way to keep the University of Evansville's 20th ranked offense off the scoreboard Wednesday night at UE's Black Beauty Field.

Goals by Gerard Barbero and Jordan Barnes, and a defense that withstood 15 Evansville shots and 10 corner kicks, gave Missouri State (4-7-3, 1-1-0) a 2-0 Missouri Valley Conference win over Evansville (7-5-1, 0-2-0).  The Aces came into the match with 25 goals in 12 matches for the 20th best scoring average in Division I.

Barbero broke the scoreless tie at 40:24 with a blast from 20 yards that nicked the bottom of the crossbar as it headed into the net untouched.  Then at 60:34, Barnes got position on a UE defender near the goal, took a pass from Johannes Demarzi, and wheeled around to score the Bears' second goal.  Missouri State spent most of the second half turning away Evansville scoring chances.  Justin Sass and Robby Lynch just missed with headers, and a goal off a corner kick in the final 10 minutes was disallowed by a foul.

Missouri State finished with 11 shots, five on goal.  Evansville took 15 shots, and all four on goal were stopped by Bears' keeper Alex Riggs.

The Aces play their final non-conference match Friday at nationally ranked Maryland before finishing the regular season with MVC matches against Eastern Illinois on the road, and Bradley and Drake at home.