Sept. 22, 2004

Box Score

Milwaukee, Wis.- There was no rest for the road-weary UIC soccer team on Wednesday night.

Despite playing without three starters and fielding a team decimated with injuries, the Flames put up a valiant effort but came up short in a 2-0 loss to Marquette at Valley Fields.

UIC (1-7-0) fell behind early as the senior Chris Lee of the Golden Eagles (2-4-0) stole a ball and beat Flames keeper Jeff Engelbrecht in the fourth minute to put Marquette up 1-0.

From there the UIC defense held until the 61st minute, when Matt Soper used passes from Lee and Matt Blouin to sneak the ball past Engelbrecht and into the right corner of the net for the final tally of the game.

UIC had offensive chances throughout the contest despite being outshot 22-13. Sophomore Eric Cervantes led the Flames with six shots, including four on goal. Cervantes had one shot barely bounce off the crossbar, while another shot that he chested past Marquette keeper Steven Grow was deflected off the foot of a Golden Eagles defender.

Kenneth Nightingale, last week's hero against DePaul, had a good chance to score after a brutal collision with Grow in the box. Nightingale jumped right up after the fall and had clear sight of the net, but his shot went wide.

"We had chances," said UIC assistant coach Seth Mason. "We were definitely shorthanded, but we didn't put the shots on goal that we needed to."

Outside of the two goals that resulted from miscommunication on defense, Engelbrecht played another solid game in goal with eight saves.

Jed Schenkier played an outstanding game in the middle with numerous wins on headers, while Bleri Bregu saw his first action of the season and made the most of it, nearly gaining an assist with a sweet pass to Cervantes that just missed.

UIC returns home to take on Cleveland State at Flames Field this Sunday as part of UIC Alumni Day festivities. The game begins at 2:00 p.m.