The men's soccer team traveled to Hammond, IN to open their 2014 season against the Peregrines of Purdue University Calumet.  Despite goals from Mario Williams (16th minute) and Garrett Nimmo (81st minute), the team lost it's season opener to Purdue university Calumet 3-2 in overtime. "We played really well for the first 20 minutes of the 1st half. We pressured well and created some good chances", said Head Coach Mark Bell. In the 16th minute, Tristan Esprit served up a great ball and Mario Williams headed it in for the goal and the 1-0 lead. "We had a couple of really good chances after that but just couldn't find the back of the net." The Golden Eagles went in to halftime with a 1-0 lead.

The second half was a different story. "We started off the 2nd half extremely slow and never really recovered. The Peregrines fought back and took control of the game. Sophomore GK Nick Hopkins kept the Peregrines off the board to start the 2nd half with a beautiful save on a pk. Nick finished the game with 2 saves.

"We really struggled in the back today and just didn't have the leadership we needed back there." The Peregrines continued to pressure our backline to create scoring opportunities and eventually tied it up in the 63rd minute and took the lead in the 65th minute.

A weather delay stopped the game with 9 minutes left.  CU came back after the delay and Garrett Nimmo tied the game right after the restart.  Cornerstone had chances to score before the end of regulation but didn't find the back of the net. 

At 4:30 in to the 1st overtime, there was another breakdown in the back and the Peregrines tapped in the game winner. "It was good to see the guys play a strong first half and battle back after we went down 2-1 but we lacked consistency in the back and struggled to finish the opportunities we had," said Bell.

The Peregrines outshot the Golden eagles 15-12 and Golden Eagles had 3 corners to Purdue Calumet's 2.

Golden Eagles will travel to Sioux City, Iowa to take on Morningside on Friday, Sept 5th  and Northwestern College on Saturday, September 6th.