BISMARCK, N.D. - Kicking off the conference portion of their schedule, the University of Mary Men's Soccer team hosted Montana State University - Billings for the Marauder's 2015 home opener.
 
It was a rough day on the pitch for U-Mary (1-3-1, 0-1-0 GNAC) with tensions running high as the Yellowjackets (3-1-1, 1-0-0 GNAC) utilized an aggressive attack to hand the Marauders a 4-0 loss.
 
MSU-Billings showcased their aggression early in the first half as they had three fouls, one offside and one shot on goal well before the 10th minute, but U-Mary rode a solid defensive effort as Ludvig Rhodin made the save and turned the offense around as Aaron Brennan had a header shot attempt and Christoffer Nogueira had a shot sail wide right of the goal.
 
The Yellowjackets finally struck first in the 13th minute when Ricardo Palomino took a through pass from David Loeung and snuck a shot past Rhodin from about seven yards in front of the goal to put U-Mary in a 1-0 hole in the match.
 
MSU-Billings kept the ball on the Marauder's side of the pitch from that point, but U-Mary finally broke through in the 24th minute to put the ball on the Yellowjacket's half when keeper Tom Lohmann had to stop a corner kick from Nogueira from going into a goal, yet the offense stalled for the Marauders through the rest of the half.
 
The aggressiveness continued to mount for MSU-Billings as they received two cautions in the rest of the half, but kept the pressure on U-Mary's defense with five more shots en route to halftime.
 
The floodgates opened up in the second half with the Yellowjackets recording the second goal of the match on a pass from Sam Butterworth that found Julian Toenges who beat Rhodin about five yards in front of the box to extend the lead to 2-0 in the 68th minute. MSU-Billings followed that up with another goal in the 72nd minute off a header shot from Palomino who took the pass form Jacob Richter and gave the Marauders a 3-0 deficit to overcome.
 
Rhodin received a caution of his own after a disputed call where it appeared that the Yellowjackets were offside, but the call never came and the head official eventually handed Rhodin his second caution of the year.
 
MSU-Billings added the fourth goal of the match on another disputed goal, the issue began when the Yellowjackets were charged with a foul and Lucas Felice prepared to take the free kick. A Yellowjackets player did not clear the space in front of Felice as play resumed and a ricochet off the Yellowjacket was taken by Palomino and carried down the length of the pitch. Palomino's initial shot caromed off the post and was corralled by Loeung who sent the response past Rhodin and gave MSU-Billings a commanding 4-0 lead in the 73rd minute.
 
Tempers continued to flare as the goal was questioned by the Marauders but to no avail and U-Mary eventually fell in the match, 4-0.
 
Nogueira led the Marauders on the offense with three shots in the game, the one on goal coming off a corner kick attempt.
 
U-Mary continues their conference schedule next Thursday, September 24, when they host Simon Fraser University at the MDU Resources Bowl at 8 pm.
 
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