St. Ambrose men's soccer suffered their first loss of the season as they traveled to Division 1, Western Illinois, this evening. SAU scored two first half goals to keep themselves in the match before the Leathernecks found the gut wrencher in the final period of play. The Bees were defeated 2-4 to drop to 0-1-1 on the season.

SAU conceded an early goal in the fourth minute of play to go down 0-1. There was not much offensive action early on for the Bees, with their first corner kick coming in the 31st minute of action. At this point, they were already trailing three to nil and hoping for a momentum swing. 

Until it occurred, less than four minutes later, Ethan Holke had a go on net for his first goal of the season. The Bees would continue their high pressured attack for the next series of plays as Lucas Pizani sneaks the ball past the Leathernecks' keeper. 

St. Ambrose would only trail 2-3 now, with the ball in their court. The Bees would trail headed into halftime as neither team was dangerous in the remaining five minutes of the opening period.

In the second half, St. Ambrose struggled to get a shot off as they were pinned in their half. Western Illinois took advantage as they scored their final goal of the match.

The first shot in the second period for the Bees came in the 79th minute. German Worm tested the goal keeper of Western Illinois. St. Ambrose would keep up the pressure with another hit from Diego Hernandez shortly followed. Nothing more would come for either team as the Leathernecks slipped away with a 4-2 win. 

SAU managed four shots in the match with two creating scores. The Bees only generated one corner kick as the Leathernecks had nine corner kick chances. 

Ethan Holke and Lucas Pizani each scored for SAU. 

Kai Domagala owned three saves on the evening in almost 80 minutes of action.

Mount Mercy is up next for St. Ambrose as the Bees will travel a short distance to Cedar Rapids. Game time is set for 7 p.m. next Tues., Sep. 10th.