ROCKFORD, ILL – The Concordia University Chicago men's soccer team (0-5-0, 0-1-0) kicked off Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference play at Rockford University to face the Regents. While there was not much to seperate both teams throughout the 90 minutes, the Cougars fell on the losing side 1-0.

Inside The Box
-        Forward Garrett Poynter (Noblesville, Ind.) led the Cougars with three shots, two of them on target.
-        Midfielders Joey Smeriglio (Park Ridge, Ill.) and Elias De Santiago (Chicago, Ill.) both had two shots, with Smeriglio having one shot on target respectively.
-        Goalkeeper Joseph Perez (Crystal Lake, Ill.) despite conceding one goal, made two saves helping the Cougars not concede more than two goals in a game for the first time this season.

1st Half
Shots were not easy to come by throughout the opening half for the Cougars as they had two shots, one from both Smeriglio and Poynter in which both shots were saved at the 8:58 and 29:55 mark respectively.
After having a continuous string of opportunities, Rockford would find the breakthrough goal in the 32nd minute on a header at the far post from a cross scored by Javier Palacios.

2nd Half
Both teams continued to play very structured on defense at the start of the second half, and not allowing quality goal scoring opportunities for either side. Despite that the Cougars outshot the Regents in the second half 6-5.
The Cougars were given a lifeline late in the going after Rockford's Austin Curtis was sent off on a red card at the 82:36 mark, however despite making a late charge on the attack to tie the game up with the man advantage, they could not find the equalizing goal.

Looking Ahead
The Cougars will look to avenge their loss, at home this Saturday September 16th at 3:15pm against Lakeland University in their first NACC home opener. Coverage for all our sports can be found at cucougars.com/coverage.