RIVER FOREST, Ill. -- Looking to pick up one last win before the playoff schedule begins, the Concordia-Chicago men's soccer team battled the MSOE Raiders for 90 minutes this afternoon, before ultimately falling 2-0 after two second-half goals.
The Cougars came out strong early on, and rifled off three shots on goal to force MSOE's goalie Ron Marchionna to get right to work. As CUC dominated the early possessions, junior
Gerardo Medina created two scoring opportunities in the Raiders' defensive zone but was unable to capitalize. The Cougar defense also worked efficiently in the backfield as freshman goalkeeper
Joseph Perez came up with three big saves to keep the game scoreless.
MSOE came out of the halftime break with a much more aggressive play style, and forced CUC's hand as the Raiders' 16th shot of the night eventually found the back of the net. Falling behind 1-0 with 28 minutes to go, the Cougars still had plenty of time to equalize. Before Concordia could settle the score, MSOE would net the ball again, this time in the 80th minute, off a bending shot into the top left corner of the net.
While the Raiders took a late 2-0 lead, Medina kept the Cougars in the mix as he fired a shot in the 87th minute that was headed for the top right corner of the net, until netminder Marchionna got a hand on the ball to send it out of play.
Despite the 2-0 loss, Perez reached a new career-high with nine saves on the day. While the Cougars move to 9-8 on the year, they will advance to the NACC playoffs, for the first time in program history, this weekend. CUC will compete in the quarterfinals on Saturday, with the time, location and opponent still to be determined. Check out
cucougars.com for updates on the playoff schedule.
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