Ospina says loss will help team grow

Box Score Cristhian Ospina never likes to lose, but if his team is going to he'd much rather it happen in early September than early October or November.
 
Wayland Baptist gave up two second-half goals to Texas-Permian Basin and the No. 24 Pioneer men's soccer team fell to the NCAA Division II Falcons on Friday afternoon at Hilliard Field, 4-2.
 
"I'm happy we got to play UTPB. They exposed our weaknesses," Ospina said. "I'm thankful it happened early in the season so we can learn from it."
 
Playing their season-opener, the Falcons got on the board just 4 minutes, 37 seconds in on a header by Stefan Faria from 15-feet out. Seven minutes later junior Raheem Fleming, seeing his first action for Wayland after missing the Pioneers' season-opening win over Hardin-Simmons, tied it on a goal with an assist from James Quinn.
 
Wayland took a 2-1 lead when Cooper Gaypia became the first WBU player with multiple goals, scoring on a breakaway with an assist from Ricardo Ramos.
 
UTPB tied it when Brandon Lee scored on a tough 1v1 for WBU freshman keeper Jurlef Salazar some eight minutes before intermission.
 
The second half was all Falcons, although both teams recorded the same number of shots in the first 45 minutes (five for Wayland, four for UTPB) as in the first.
 
Frankie Rodriguez netted the game-winner for the Falcons some eight minutes after the break, then Esai Cortez added an insurance goal eight minutes later.
 
Of Wayland's 10 shots, only one was on goal besides the two that found their mark. Gaypia got off three shots while Fleming and Ramos tallied two each.
 
In a match that featured nine yellow cards and two reds, Ospina said UTPB is "always physical.
"This was a good learning experience for us," the coach said. "I saw some positive things but we definitely got exposed. We have to learn from it."
 
Ospina said the Pioneers "have to play more together as a team and work on being tougher in the middle. Communication is a big part of it. With other teams we got away with that, but with a better team like UTPB they made us pay for our mistakes.
 
"I hate losing but sometimes you have to take those losses and learn from them."
 
The Pioneers take Saturday off before a quick turnaround match against Paul Quinn at 2 p.m. Sunday at Hilliard Field.
 
"We expect them to be physical and play with a lot of heart, just like UTPB," Ospina said. "It's a matter of us adjusting and doing things differently and better (than we did Friday).
 
"The competition is only going to get harder."