Sept. 12, 2015 - Under blue skies, and with a cool fall breeze blowing, the Concordia Cougars (0-4-0) would be left frustrated after a 1-0 loss to the Maranatha Baptist Sabercats (2-1-1).

The old truism says, "you can't score if you don't shoot." The Cougars did plenty of shooting on the afternoon, outgunning the Sabercats by an 18-4 margin, but they would find their efforts coming up empty. The first half played with a strong breeze resulted in a midfield possession battle and featured just eight total shots between the two teams. The Cougars took six corners in the first half to no avail, and the game headed into halftime scoreless.

The second half was packed full of chances for Concordia. The Cougars took 12 shots, forcing the Sabercats' goalie to make seven saves.

The game remained scoreless until the 57^th minute. It would be Anna Dahl that would take a corner kick for Maranatha. Her kick would sail and be played with the perfect curve that went just over the head of Maddie Kroll (Geneva, IL/H.S.) and find its way into the net just inside the far post, giving the Sabercats the lead for good.

CUC went on the attack with both Shauna Rembold and Alisha Johnson (Coal City, IL/H.S.) getting good looks at the net, but the Cougars would come within inches in the 76^th minute. After a series of good passes deep in the MBU defensive zone, the ball landed at the feet of Allison Kruk (Elgin, IL/St. Edward) who would put it into the net for what appeared to be the game-tying goal. The cheers quickly silenced after the fans realized that the Cougars were offside on the play and the goal would not count.

Head Coach Chris Brown in talking about the match today said, " I thought our energy, effort, and performance was spot on and at the standard we want to go. Unfortunately, the not so fun part about soccer is you can dominate a match and not get the result you want. We just have to move on, take the positives and get back after it tomorrow with the right mind set."

The Cougars will have to make adjustments on the fly as they finish up the weekend with a home match against MacMurray College. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m.