Daniela Chapa-Reyes 
PHOTO COURTESY UTRGV ATHLETICS
The UTRGV Men’s Soccer Team has had a rough 2025 season losing their last five games. The team last fell to Houston Christian University 1-0 on Wednesday.
Prior to HCU, the team had fallen against University of the Incarnate Word 2-1 on Sept. 12 after leading the first half of the game.
Assistant head coach Sheldon Cipriani said the team has the capability to play well in prolonged periods of time.
“The last three games, we’ve had two moments of indiscretion that have cost us the game,” Cipriani said. “We have reiterated to the guys that [the] level of focus has to be sustained for 90 minutes. We want to eliminate the little errors that are costing us the games.”
When facing Oral Roberts University on Sept. 4, junior midfielder and Mission-native Emiliano Abboud was handed a red card during the first half of the match, which led the team to play with only 10 men for the rest of the game.
Cipriani said the team needs to be sharper and clinical in the final third.
“Our team is very young,” he said. “To be honest, the young players have exceeded our expectations in terms of their readiness, talent and willingness. We’re very optimistic regarding the future of the program.”
Redshirt junior midfielder Eduardo De Oliveira marked 3 shots on goal against Incarnate Word.
“One was in the post, so I think I’m getting closer and closer [to scoring],” De Oliveira said. “Just keep practicing, just work harder. I know if you work hard, one time, I’m going to score, and that’s it.”
Prior to the match, he scored the only goal made against Oral Roberts before the team fell short 2-1.
“It happened, like, two games in a row already where we have the first half 1-0 and, then, they score 2 goals on us,” De Oliveira said. “I think we just need to be more focused. We need to want more, we have the team, we have the quality. … We just need more consistency.”
Sophomore forward Koren Klein made the goal against Incarnate Word, and said he is very happy to have scored.
“We’re obviously trying to get more goals in each game,” Klein said. “We did get goals in the last two games, which is good. We need to get more hands [on], be better on the defensive side, so we can actually win games.”
He said the first half against Incarnate Word was one of the team’s best halves, so far.
“We have to keep going for the whole game and not just for some period of it,” Klein said.
Freshman forward Michael Chaves, like Klein, said the first half against Incarnate Word was “one of the best bits of football we’ve played so far.”
“I think we were quite dominant,” Chaves said. “The only issue in that first half was we just didn’t put away our chances. We created a lot, but we just didn’t get our final finishing touch to finish it.”
He said what has been costing the teams the last couple of games has been a lack of focus.
“It’s only been five-minute windows where we’ve lost the game,” Chaves said. “I think that, just in general, the team has to keep more focus.”
The Vaqueros played against the Lindenwood University Lions on Friday. As of press time, the score for the match was unavailable.
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