Eric Gehrig and Willie Koss, from the Loyola men's soccer team, are Men's Soccer correspondents for the HLN Blog.
We last left you sitting in northeast Ohio, awaiting our game against Cleveland State. Let's just say our opening weekend in Horizon League play did not go as planned. An 89th-minute goal by Cleveland State sent us on a six hour bus ride back to Chicago with 0 points to open up league play. We felt like we played well, but hats off to CSU for battling to the end.
Sunday afternoon we drove to Valparaiso, determined to right the ship in conference. After the first half, we felt confident after a beautiful goal by senior Alex Jones on a cross from senior Michael Ferguson. The team was confident more goals would come until a questionable red card was issued to sophomore Jordan Lewis. Valparaiso scored ten minutes later to tie the game and we had to start pressing even though we were down a man. At the end of the day, a 1-1 tie was recorded. Not the result we wanted...but considering the circumstances, a result well-deserved.
During the next week of practice, we worked hard knowing the weekend ahead was going to be difficult: Butler and Maryland. When Friday night came, it was a terrible looking night, with rain and 50-degree weather. Despite the conditions, we felt we played well against Butler even though we could not find the back of the net. A 0-0 tie left a bad taste in our mouth. On Saturday morning, the team went to the Lakefront Invitational, a cross country event hosted by our school. We had a great time cheering on our fellow Ramblers and it was a good change of pace. Sunday morning we had another successful practice as we looked forward to our match with the Maryland Terrapins on Tuesday night. Maryland's pitch is second to none, and it made for a great atmosphere. After 90 minutes we lost 1-0, but were proud of the way we fought against an exceptional Maryland squad.
On Wednesday night, a couple of us went to the UIC-Akron game and were very impressed with the Akron Zips...the number #1 team in the nation. UIC played very well though, and we felt it was a good showing for the Horizon League. Also on Wednesday night, we saw the Butler Bulldogs beat Indiana University 2-1, which is yet another great showing for the league.
This Saturday night we head to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee poised to secure our first win within the league.
See ya brahs!
