Sept. 11, 2010 - The Concordia-Chicago women's soccer team opened up their Northern Athletics Conference schedule this afternoon with a home match against Marian University. The Cougars looked to notch their first win of the season, but a pair of bad breaks led to two first-half goals for the Sabres, and they pulled away in the second half for a 5-0 win.
The Sabres came out attacking behind senior forward Kim Kriese, but Kayla Henckel (West Bend, WI/Living Word Lutheran) and the defense stood firm in limiting the visitors' opportunities. However, in the 24th minute, a centering pass from the left side took an unfortunate deflection off defender Kyla Stigdon (Mount Airy, MD/Carroll Christian) and into the net for an own goal and a 1-0 Marian lead.
Four minutes later, Kriese charged down the right wing and fired from 20 yards out. Her shot caromed off the far post but came right back to Kriesea, and she followed up with a short blast from the middle of the box to increase Marian's lead to 2-0.
Late in the half, the Cougars had a chance to cut the Sabres' lead in half. Lindsay Dyal's (Eagle River, AK/Chugiak) direct kick from the right side sliced through a maze of players to Tiffany Erdman. The Sabres' keeper was unable to corral the ball for a few seconds, but the Cougars in the vicinity were unable to get off a clear shot at goal. The half came to an end with Concordia trailing by two.
Kriese netted her second goal in the first five minutes of the second half, but the Cougars kept fighting. Henckel made four saves in the half, three of them high-quality chances for Marian, but the offense was unable to dent the net at the other end of the field. Marian finally put the game away with goals in the 61st and 87th minutes.
The Cougars (0-4) will play Division Street rival Dominican University on Wednesday afternoon at DU's field.
