DUBUQUE, Iowa. – The Carthage College men's soccer team (12-8-3, 4-2-1 CCIW) saw their season come to a close in a 3-1 loss to No. 11 Loras College (15-4-1, 7-0 IIAC) in the second round of the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championships on Sunday, November 15^th at the Rock Bowl.
 
"We ran into a really good team in Loras today, but I still felt the last few days we had a good chance at gutting this one out" said head coach Steve Domin.
 
Loras scored first in the game in the 12^th minute when Richarl Lenke scored a goal from 20 feet out after a free kick. In the 26^th minute, Loras' Austin Jacobi scored on a ball from Alex Bradley to take the lead 2-0. Loras would lead 2-0 going into the half.
 
One minute into the second half, Loras' Justin Giacotto headed a ball from Richard Lenke to take the 3-0 lead over the Red Men. Carthage's one and only goal would come from Jake Bukiri on a penalty kick in the 75^th minute to shorten the Duhawks lead to 3-1.
 
"Playing two very good teams on the road at distance was a tall order in this Regional, and reaching the final we are proud" stated Domin.
 
Austin Bitta led the Red Men in shots with four, accompanied by Ivan Chavez with three. As a team, Carthage had 13 shots, four shots on target and completed six corner kicks.
 
"What's really interesting is that we have seen this style before," said Domin, "everyone was commenting on how much we really owned the possession arrow, but we just couldn't get deadly looks at goal" 
 
Niko Mavrogiannis played all 90 minutes in goal for the Red Men, completing six saves and allowing three goals. In comparison, Loras' Jacob Peterson played 90 minutes, completed three saves and allowed one goal.
 
"Their goalkeeper took many of our efforts away and their first goal on a suspect restart was simply struck so well" stated Domin.
 
However, the Red Men are not going home with nothing to show for their efforts. Carthage won the CCIW Men's Soccer Tournament this season and also earned their first NCAA Tournament win in program history. The Red Men will now head into the offseason in preparation for the 2016 season with hope to return again to the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championships.