FORT WORTH, Texas - The Ram soccer team began their last home game of the season just the way they wanted to. Nathan Mutchler’s shot in the 28th minute past Eagle keeper Chris Shultz gave the Rams a 1-0 lead, and the slight drizzle in the air and the sluggish conditions on the field suggested that it just might be enough to squeeze out a victory. In fact, the lead did hold up for a long time, just not long enough.

The remaining 17 minutes of the half went by slowly, as neither team could mount much of an offensive push. The second half looked very similar for the first 35 minutes.

Then, Frisco native Mike Guernica found the net past Ram keeper Oscar Burciaga to tie the score at 1-1. Wesleyan, though, controlled the ball for the next few minutes, and had two good opportunities to score. In the 82nd minute, Rene Mercado made a nice pass inside the box to Travis Mauldin, who managed to fight off a defender just enough to put a decent shot at the far post. Shultz was in good position, though, and swatted the ball aside.

Two minutes later, Wesleyan’s Miljan Pandurevic corralled the ball at the corner of the 20 yard box to Shultz’s left and sent a powerful blast headed just inside the near post. Shultz dove and got just enough of the ball to knock it wide.

The Eagles then seemed to grab the momentum for the remaining time. After a prolonged attack at the Wesleyan end of the field, the Eagles managed a corner kick when a Wesleyan defender kicked the ball out of play. The corner kick went past the goal untouched, but Burciaga slipped on the muddy field while tracking it across. A quick shot glanced off of a Wesleyan defender right to Eagle midfielder Will Masterson, who sent the go-ahead goal into an unguarded net with less than a minute to play.

The Rams pushed defenders forward to press for the remaining seconds, but time expired after a Wesleyan shot went well wide of the goal. Wesleyan managed 13 shots on goal for the contest, while the Eagles had 17.

With the non-conference loss, the Rams now stand at 5-11 overall, and 1-4 in conference play. The final game of the season is Sunday at Texas A&M-International.