Box Score Sept. 1, 2015 - The dog days of August may have passed, but the heat did not subside for today's season opener for the Concordia-Chicago women's soccer team. The Cougars (0-1) dropped a close contest to North Park University (1-0) by a final score of 1-0 on a lone goal scored by North Park's Andrea Jacobson in the 17th minute.

In a game that was played a majority of time in the middle of the field, both teams showed off a bit of first-game rust with multiple touch passes being out of reach or heading out of bounds. Both teams struggled to get shots off throughout the game with the final shots on goal showing an even 3-3 total.

The lone goal came off one of the few miscues from the Cougars on the afternoon when a ball that was being played out of the Cougars' defensive zone was deflected and ended up at the feet of Andrea Jacobson. She then raced down and put the finishing touch on a shot that beat Maddie Kroll (Geneva, IL/H.S.) just to the right.

The Cougars' best chance of the afternoon would come just a few minutes later. With Natalie Weinhold (St. Peters, MO/Lutheran St. Charles)taking the corner, she sent a perfect ball that went through multiple defenders that ended up going off the head of Allison Kruk (Elgin, IL/St. Edward) which was stopped by the fingertips of the North Park goalie Meghan Ellis with no room to spare on the goal line. Kruk would be able to get one more shot on goal in the first half, accounting for both of the shots on goal for the Cougars.

The second half proved to be much of the same as the first with both coaches using multiple substitutions to keep their players fresh in the heat on the turf. Things did begin to get much more chippy during the second half leading to more foul calls and one yellow card being issued to the visitors.

The Cougars looked for some magic in the 88th minute with one final corner kick which would sail into the side of the net thus ending the chance at a comeback.

CUC head coach Chris Brown remarked afterwards,"I think overall that for the first time out, there were some good and bad moments. We have a lot of stuff from this game from which we can learn. " Brown also noted that there was a lot of excitement and nerves for his team due to this being the first game.

The Cougars will play this Friday, Sept, 4 at the Universityof Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Brown noted that "we need to keep building, trust the process, and become more dynamic on the attack." 

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