CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Delta State University men's soccer team made a valiant comeback effort in its conference matchup with West Florida on Sunday afternoon but fell short. The Statesmen suffered a 3-2 loss to the Argos to drop to 0-3-1 on the season and 0-1-1 in Gulf South Conference play, while West Florida improved to 3-1 on the year and 2-0 in conference play.

Delta State kept the pace with West Florida for most of the match. West Florida's Andre Verardi scored the first goal of the game in the 30^th minute to take the 1-0 lead. The score remained 1-0 at the half.

The Argos came out firing in the second half as they scored again 11 minutes into the half, in the 56^th minute of play, to extend their lead to 2-0 over Delta State. Just three minutes later, West Florida's Felipe Oliveira scored the third goal for the Argos to take a commanding 3-0 lead.

Three West Florida goals were unanswered by the Statesmen until late in the second half. In the 74^th minute of play, Delta State's Kofi Adu-Amankwah scored on a nicely chipped pass over the West Florida defense from Amine Rahmani to keep the Statesmen in the game with the score now 3-1. Rahmani scored for Delta State less than ten minutes later off of a free kick following a West Florida foul to put the Statesmen in reach, trailing 3-2 with four minutes left to play. Delta State fell short of a comeback win as time expired in regulation. The Argos took the 3-2 win.

Delta State outshot West Florida 19-15, but the Argos took the advantage in shots on goal with seven compared to Delta State's five. Mack Pytyck was in goal for the Statesmen. He recorded four saves and allowed all three goals by the Argos. West Florida's Steven Hermosa was in goal for the Argos, recording three saves and allowing two goals.

Up next for the Statesmen is a two-game road trip starting in Rome, Ga., and ending in Cleveland, Tenn. The Statesmen take on Shorter University on Friday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. and Lee University (Tenn.) on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m.