INDIANAPOLIS – In a quick one-game break from league play, the IU Indianapolis men's soccer team took on a familiar foe in Western Illinois, falling 2-1 after giving up two first half goals. Tyson Aschliman's second tally of his young career came in the second half, but the Jaguars were unable to find the tying goal in the final minutes of the match.

"We were way too exposed in the first half, and Western exploited that," head coach Sid van Druenen stated following the match. "We reminded the guys of some things at the half, and the second half was a completely different picture."

Both sides struggled to find their footing in the opening minutes of the contest, leading to lots of changes of possession and back and forth. The first real scoring chance of the match came in the tenth minute when Leevi Swearengen cut in from the left side of the field and whipped a shot towards goal, but Declan Finnegan was up to the challenge, forcing the ball over the bar.

After the hosts settled into the game, they held the lion's share of possession for the back half of the opening '45. With the bulk of possession came more attacking opportunities, which mostly came from crosses from wide areas into the box. Despite racking up nine first-half shots, only two were on target and were straight forward saves for Alexis Michaud.

Against the run of play, the Leathernecks (5-3-1, 0-0 OVC) scored back-to-back goals in just under a minute to take control of the match. The first, coming off a Jaguar turnover in the midfield, was scored by Diego Porras who was in the right place at the right time as a clearance attempt went off his body to find the back of the net. The second came just 49 seconds later from Liam Gainey, who collected his fourth goal of the campaign with the first-half tally. After the ball was headed back and forth between the sides following a Leatherneck goal kick, it ended up at the feet of Benjamin Graham who played an excellent ball in behind the back line to the feet of Gainey who made no mistake with the finish, finding the side netting to beat Declan Finnegan.

Similar to the first half, IU Indianapolis (3-4-1, 0-2 HL) controlled the ball for the majority of the second stanza, holding over 60 percent of the possession. The hosts, needing two goals threw numbers forward, had twice the number of shots as Western in the second half, but again struggled to find the target and was plagued by near misses.

The breakthrough finally came in the 77th minute when Giovanni Leon played a beautiful ball over the top of the defense from his center back position to a streaking Stan Klaver who perfectly crushed a cross to the edge of the six-yard box. Aschliman converted the splendid service, slotting the ball passed the keeper with his right foot for his second tally of his young career. The assist was also Klaver's second of the year.

With just over ten minutes to play and only down a goal, the Jaguars continued to push forward in search of the equalizer. The hosts looked to have found that goal with just over six minute to play, but Micah Ramirez had other ideas, making the save of the match to maintain his sides' one-goal advantage. The play began with a diagonal ball to Aschliman from Owen Parrish, a cross was then sent into a dangerous spot and Christian Nielsen did excellent to send a powerful header to the upper corner, but a diving Ramirez denied the goal.

Despite having a few more opportunities, the Jaguars were unable to capitalize, dropping the match, 3-2, for the team's third consecutive loss. The team will look to get back on track when they return to conference play at the weekend, travel to Oakland to face the Golden Grizzlies on Saturday (Sept. 28).