MACOMB, Ill. – The Western Illinois men's soccer team dropped its third straight match with a 1-0 loss to No. 22 Drake, Wednesday, Oct. 7.

The lone goal of the match came when Drake midfielder Kevin Shrout knocked in a penalty kick in the 49th minute of the match to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Drake (6-3-1) held the Fighting Leathernecks (2-7-0) scoreless the rest of the way for their sixth win of the season.

"I thought we played really well in the first half," Western Illinois head coach Dr. Eric Johnson said. "We were great in the first and then just played really average in the second half. We've had some guys battling with the flu so it could have been a fatigue factor but we just looked tired in the second half."

The game winner came after Western goalkeeper Andrew Ryan stopped a shot by Shrout, but was called for a foul as Shrout tried to manuever past him for the rebound.

"As a goalie its almost impossible to stop penalty kicks," Johnson said. "Andy did everything he could, but as a keeper you basically have to guess where the ball is going to go and in this case it just didn't work out for him."

The Leathernecks were able to come up with a few solid scoring opportunities, including three shots on goal from James Raabe, but were unable to tie the game up.

"We just still haven't quite found a way to be consistent on offense," Johnson said. "The only way to win games is to score goals and I've told our guys thats what we need to do. We need to send dangerous balls into the box and convert those into scores."

The Bulldogs outshot the Leathernecks by a 13 to 11 margin, including six to four in shots on goal. Western was led by James Raabe, who had three shots on goal.

Western Illinois finished the match with more corner kicks by a five to four count and was called for 12 fouls to Drake's 11. Leatherneck goalkeepers Andy Ryan and Stephen Paterson each played one half. Paterson made two saves in the first half, while Ryan made three saves on the four shots he faced in the second half.

"We're in conference play the rest of the season now and thats going to be big," Johnson said. "It won't get any easier from here on out. We have IUPUI coming up this weekend and they do a really nice job of making you work hard for every shot."