NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- The University of St. Francis men's soccer team put together a solid first half, but could not hold on as Holy Cross College defeated the Fighting Saints by a score of 4-3 in Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference action on Saturday night.  The loss drops USF's record to 2-8-2 overall and 2-5-0 in league play.

First Half
St. Francis got the offense started in the first half, out-shooting the hosts 5-3 over the first 32 minutes of play.  The Fighting Saints were able to rattle off two shots in the opening minutes, before their third shot - off the foot of Sergio Fernandez-Arango and assisted by Juan Jimenez - connected for the first score of the match in the 25th minute.  HCC eventually found the equalizer behind the effort of Xavier Fox, who fired a shot past USF keeper Merlijn van der Veen at the 33:52 mark to tie the score at 1-1.  St. Francis was quick to respond, however, as less than two minutes later, the Saints recaptured the lead after Fernandez-Arango again broke free to use a cross from Antwan Esparza to push USF's lead up to 2-1.  Holy Cross (9-4-0, 6-0-0 CCAC) dominated possession the remainder of the half taking credit for 10 additional shot attempts at the USF goal, but the hosts were met with a strong defensive line from USF with all attempts coming up empty.  That enabled the guests to go into the halftime break with the 2-1 advantage.

Second Half
The one-score lead lasted for eight minutes after the break before Fox scored his second goal of the night past van der Veen to tie the game at 2-2.  The next 10 minutes would be detrimental for the Fighting Saints with HCC adding to its stat line in producing the same result in two of its next four shots attempts to widen its scoring margin to 4-2.  Nonetheless, USF continued to apply their aggressive pressure and was able to produce their third goal of the match in the 84th minute.  Fernandez-Arango was credited with the unassisted goal, his third of the night, to cut the HCC lead 4-3.  That one-score advantage would hold for the remaining six minutes of the match to solidify the win for Holy Cross.

The hosts overpowered the Fighting Saints in shot attempts on the night, authoring 25 compared to USF's 15.  Fernandez-Arango tallied the most tries for St. Francis with five, while Jenson Eve recorded two.  Van der Veen played the full 90 minutes in goal, making six saves.

Up Next
St. Francis will be back at home on Wednesday evening (Oct. 15) to take on Saint Xavier University.  Kickoff for the CCAC contest is slated to begin at 7 pm at Joliet Memorial Stadium.

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