Box Score Sept. 13, 2014 – Saturday was a great sunny day for soccer in Jacksonville, Illinois, but the Concordia-Chicago Cougars had their four-game winning streak broken as they lost 1-0 to the Lady Blues of Illinois College.

"Today we played like the young team that we are," said CUC head coach Thomas Goines. "It took us 45 minutes to find our feet as Illinois College came out with a level of energy that we haven't seen yet this season. Once we matched that energy, we dominated in the second half, but the deciding goal had already been scored."

In the first half, IC physically pushed Concordia-Chicago around the field and won the hard tackles. It took awhile for the Cougars to adjust to the physicality and, after a kerfuffle in the 21^st minute, which resulted in duel yellow cards to a Cougar and a Lady Blue, the tide started to turn.

Natalie Weinhold (St Peters, MO/Lutheran St Charles) struck a ball off the crossbar from the right side to spark several minutes of Cougar pressure. Unfortunately, with 14 seconds remaining in the first half the Lady Blues headed home a corner kick for the 1-0 margin.

The Cougars regrouped in the second half and returned to playing their brand of soccer. CUC played tough and began to win the 50-50 balls as well as imposing themselves on the game with possession. The change in flow showed as Elizabeth Sanders (St Louis, MO/Parkway South) hit the crossbar just six minutes into the second half and Weinhold struck the rebound wide right.

The Cougar pressure mounted throughout the second half as their possession wore down the hosts. Sarah LaCost (Mount Prospect, IL/Prospect) was inspired and shrugged off a Lady Blue center back in the right corner and crossed a ball that Alisha Johnson (Coal City, IL/H.S.) struck left footed to the far post. A tremendous block by the keeper fell to Shawna Rembold (Rochester, MI/Stoney Creek), but the rebound went wide left.

The Cougars have a week to improve before hosting a doubleheader as they start with Edgewood College on Saturday, Sept. 20. This is the opening game of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference schedule and the start of a busy weekend as CUC also hosts Anderson University on Sunday, Sept. 21.