MACOMB, Ill. ? The Western Illinois men's soccer team could not overcome a late first half goal, falling 1-0 to Graceland at John MacKenzie Alumni Field, Sunday.

The Leathernecks (4-7-3) battled even with the Yellowjackets (13-0-1) through the first 30 minutes of the game. Preston Bernardi (Naperville, Ill./Waubonsie Valley) had a scoring chance in the 23rd minute but could not get the shot past Yellowjacket goalkeeper Carlos Ortiz. The game remained scoreless until the 31st minute. At that point, Graceland forward Matt Klaus got the ball on a counter attack, and found Hunter Re on the right side of the box, who beat junior goalkeeper Charlie Sales (Springfield, Ill./Lehigh) for the game winning goal.

“Hats off to Graceland, they are a good team and play together,” stated Dr. Eric Johnson. “You can see why they won a national championship last year with the group they have.”

Sales made consecutive saves at the start of the second half to keep Western within a single goal. As the game wore on, the Leathernecks found better scoring opportunities. Nebojsa Opacic (Katy, Texas/Illinois Central College) got a shot on goal in the 61st minute off a cross pass from sophomore James Raabe (Jacksonville, Ill./Jacksonville), but could not get it past Ortiz. Jona Andrade (Miami, Fla./Sunset Senior) gave Western one of their best scoring looks when he ripped a shot to the right of Ortiz. However, Ortiz came up with a diving save to keep Graceland's lead at 1-0.

“I was happy with the attacking game (for us),” said Johnson of the offense today. “If we didn't give up the one counter attack goal, we'd be playing overtime right now. Playing back-to-back games is both a physical test and a mental test. Our guys passed that test by playing as hard as Graceland today.”

Each team took 10 shots throughout the game. Graceland managed to land five of those on goal, to Western's four. The Yellowjackets held a slight advantage in the corner kicks by a margin of five to three. Overall, the matchup was physical with seven total yellow cards called.

“I've said it all year long, we are trying to prepare the team for conference games and the conference tournament,” added Johnson. “Right now it's just conference games coming up with the next two. We had a lot of games and now all of sudden it will slow down. We will be able to focus on one opponent per weekend for the next two, which is huge for us.”

Western stays in Macomb for the next two weekends, with Summit League matchups against IUPUI (Oct. 14) and Centenary (Oct. 27).