BISMARCK, N.D. - Kicking off their senior weekend, the University of Mary Men's Soccer team took on Concordia University (Ore.) this afternoon as the Marauders began their final stretch of home matches for the 2015 season.
 
The first half of the match saw another tough defensive battle, but the second half turned into an offensive shootout as U-Mary (3-8-1, 2-6-0 GNAC) couldn't keep up the pace and fell to the Cavaliers (5-2-4, 3-1-4 GNAC) held on for the 3-2 decision over the Marauders.
 
The weather made the biggest impact of the game from the start as U-Mary chose to take the wind to their backs in the second half, which meant the first half saw a lot of action coming from the Cavaliers on U-Mary's half of the pitch.
 
Concordia put the pressure on early in the half as they fired off two corner kicks and a shot from Erick Urzua that traveled high, with Christoffer Nogueira responding with a shot of his own in the 12th minute that was saved by keeper Mitch McCaw. Nogueira's lone shot would be the only attempt the Marauders would have in the half as the Cavaliers dominated the ball control up through the break.
 
So U-Mary's defense had to answer the call and it was a test they were ready for as Mitch Taveira stopped Ben Culpan's shot on goal attempt in the 14th minute and the Marauder defenders managed to block a shot from Zak Naylor in the 35th minute of the match.
 
The majority of the first half was without much action, despite Concordia dominating the time of possession, as U-Mary employed a stringent defense to keep the four other shots from the Cavaliers off target and held Concordia to only one other corner kick in the half.
 
After the pause in action with both teams swapping sides of the pitch, the offense for the Cavaliers struck first with Jordan Potts taking a touch pass from B.J. Romac in the 52nd minute and sneaking a shot past Taveira to open up the scoring at 1-0.
 
U-Mary responded in kind with Nogueira bringing the magic touch on a corner kick attempt as he curved his long pass towards the net and the initial punch out from the keeper went right to André Almqvist who fired the ball into the back of the net to notch the score at 1-1 in the 59th minute.
 
After play resumed, Ramsey Blahnik intercepted a pass off what appeared to be a miscommunication and sent a through pass to Jordan Pearce who outran the Cavalier's defenders and beat the keeper one on one to put U-Mary in front at 2-1 only 16 seconds after the Marauder's first goal of the match.
 
U-Mary kept their foot on the gas as James Liddiard took a corner kick in the 61st minute followed almost immediately by Nogueira who took another corner in the 63rd minute. Nogueira's attempt, after some bouncing around, found it's way to Jonathan Sellars who took an immediate header shot as the Cavalier's keeper was out of position, but Concordia's defenders responded just in time with a team save that ricocheted off the crossbar as Sellars' attempt seemingly broke the plane before the defense could muster a response.
 
That wasn't the case as both teams were forced to play on with tensions mounting quickly and U-Mary receiving the first caution of the match in the 72nd minute. Concordia ended up evening the score at 2-2 in the 76th minute after Matt Paine took a throw in and sent a through pass to Tevin Lowe who snuck a shot past Taveira to tie the match.
 
Concordia received their first caution of the match immediately following the goal from Lowe and U-Mary received another one in the following minute as players from both teams continued to trade words. The Cavaliers got the last laugh, however, as Paine recorded the third goal of the match in the 78th minute after U-Mary's defense failed to clear the loose ball and scored the unassisted, and eventual game-winning, goal to put Concordia ahead at 3-2.
 
U-Mary tried to arrange a last-minute run but a shot each from Alex Boyes, Aaron Brennan and Jonathan Sellars all sailed high and the Marauders fell in their second straight match at 3-2 to the Cavaliers.
 
Both teams ended up with four shots on goal with Concordia owning the overall shot advantage at 12-7. The Marauders' defense did a great job shutting down each of the Cavalier's six corner kick attempts and made great use of their four corners.
 
U-Mary will play host to Northwest Nazarene University on Saturday, October 17, for the Marauder night cap as four teams will have a game at home on the day, starting with women's soccer hosting St. Cloud State University at 11 AM, followed by football in a game against #21 University of Minnesota Duluth at 2:30 PM, volleyball taking on #25 Winona State University at 6 PM at the McDowell Activity Center, culminating in the men's soccer match late in the evening at 7:30 PM.
 
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