LISLE, Ill. - The Benedictine University men's soccer team saw a five-match win streak come to an end with a 2-1 loss in the closing seconds of overtime to the Milwaukee School of Engineering.
"Tonight was nothing but a heart-breaking loss," head coach
Rich Nassif said. "To go down in such fashion where we battled back, really carried the second half, and played in their end for so long was undeserved. Credit MSOE, but in the end it comes back to us not finishing our multiple quality chances and falling asleep on two set pieces."
The matchup featured the only two remaining unbeaten teams in the NACC and featured end-to-end action throughout. Both MSOE goals came on set pieces. The first strike was on a corner kick in the 21st minute shortly after
Edgar Reyes was stood up by MSOE's keeper.
Both squads continued creating chances in the second half.
Anes Kadiric had an attempt stopped by a defender in the 67th minute.
Edgar Reyes just missed an open net in the 72nd minute. Benedictine broke through to even the game in the 79th minute. Reyes set up a free kick at the edge of the box on the right side following a foul. The kick crept through traffic to
Nick Kapetanos, who finished to tie the score.
During extra time, Benedictine created an early chance on a header from
Ante Markotic. MSOE hit a post and Benedictine created another opportunity before the game-winner with just :05 left on the clock on a frantic free kick.
"You have to be very proud of the way our guys battled in the second half and raised the intensity," Nassif added. "We really kept MSOE at bay and I thought we contained their offensive threat solely to set pieces. On the flip side, we wasted away some quality looks and had a couple cleared off the line. That's a game we needed to win 2-1 or 3-1 and we just did not put it away."
The shots were even at 18 apiece. Benedictine placed 10 on goal. Reyes tallied seven and Markotic five.
Steve Mack halted five shots in goal.
"We will certainly learn from this and play with more of an edge moving forward," said Nassif. "I expect a tremendous response from our guys this week."
Benedictine (6-6-1, 5-1) returns to action on Wednesday night against Concordia Chicago.
