CHICAGO, Ill. – On a windy night in the windy city, the Carthage College men's soccer team would drop a late heartbreaker to the Illinois Institute of Technology, 4-3, Wednesday, October 28th to closeout the Red Men's 2015 non-conference schedule.
 
The loss drops the Red Men to 10-6-2 overall while IIT improves to 9-8-1.
 
"We knew we were coming down here with the intention to spread out some minutes with a bunch of guys out," said head coach Steve Domin.  "But all day something didn't feel right between the weather and the energy."
 
For Carthage, it was the second game in a row that the Red Men were playing without a number of everyday starters who were sitting out due to past card accumulation desired rest before Saturday's regular season finale.
 
Nathaniel Michaelis opened the scoring for the Red Men with his first goal of the season in the 16th minute as placed a ball from Zach Schoffstall past the IIT goalkeeper for the 1-0 lead.
 
"Nathaniel really knocked the goal over on our first goal," sighted Domin.
 
A defensive blunder by the Carthage backline gave the Scarlet Hawks their first great chance in the 31st minute but freshman goalkeeper Niko Mavrogiannis, who is making his second-straight start in net, was able to push it wide for the save.
 
Moments later the Red Men doubled their lead in the 36th minute when Austin Bitta would lead an attack out of Carthage territory and into the offensive third where he would find Nick Vogel down the right flank.   Vogel sent a low cross from the corner-flag into the box where Johnny Rimkus stepped in front of the IIT goalkeeper to head it into the unoccupied goal.
 
Carthage would surrender a goal just before half in the 43rd minute as a turnover in the defensive third and a missed clearance attempt on the cross left a Scarlet Hawk attacker one-on-one with Mavrogiannis who was unable to make the save.
 
"We really did a nice job of owning the first half, and getting a comfortable lead but surrendering a goal on a give-a-way and missed clear opened the door right before half," noted the head coach.
 
IIT would come out in the second half with the momentum that they took into the break, scoring the equalizer in the 54th minute as a low shot to the back post was just out of the diving Niko Mavrogiannis' reach.
 
After it looked as though the Red Men were in control, keeping the ball in the IIT half for a majority of play following the goal, the Scarlet Hawks would break a counter in the 79th minute that would lead to a corner kick in the Carthage end that the Scarlet Hawks would convert to take their first lead of the match at 3-2.
 
Johnny Rimkus would answer with his second goal of the match as he took a pass from Shane Reilly down with his chest and after making a turn to his left cracked a volley that beat the goalkeeper in the 85th minute.
 
Domin said, "I loved the fact we battled back and still got to dangerous spots, and leveled the game when it went crooked.  Rimkus had a beautiful goal on a chest trap to volley right when we needed it.  And at that point we were arrowing towards our Cardiac Kid label."

Rimkus' two-goal performance give his a team-high eight goals and 17 points this season.
 
However, the late magic, which the Red Men have depended on so many times this season, would come from Illinois Tech as they would find the back of the net in the final minute with just 23 seconds remaining for the 4-3 win.
 
"Give IIT some credit as they were explosive on our give-a-ways, and made a couple counters when we were lazy on defense.  This one we let slip away."
 
Carthage will return home to Art Keller Field for a Halloween night matchup with Elmhurst College at 7:30 p.m. to finish the regular season and look to return to the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin following a one-year hiatus.