The College of DuPage men’s soccer team was defeated by Bryant and Stratton College 2-3 on Sept. 11 after playing a man-down due to an early red card that came back to haunt them in the second half. The Chaps were forced to play with 10 players on the field at the 25-minute mark after Ayan Sheikh’s unnecessary foul from behind that resulted in a direct red card.

“We were on both ends of the spectrum in my opinion, we played some of our best fútbol we’ve had all season at different points,” said men’s head soccer coach Zac Ludwig. “I thought the first half was consistent, but it was the opposite in the second half. We were not consistent [in the second half] and we let the other team have hope and get back into it and gave it away.”

Despite the Chaps losing their cool in the second half, Ludwig said that the team wasn’t discouraged by the red card.

“I don’t think [the red card] was the difference because when we became the desperate team,” he said. ”We created chances at the end, so there’s no reason we couldn’t have done that more throughout the second half.”

Prior to the red card, the Chaps displayed an energetic and dominating presence by putting the ball into dangerous areas near the goal box early and combining passes to break the Bobcats’ defensive line. In the second half, the momentum faded away for the Chaps, and a lack of numbers on the field appeared to have resulted in more fatigued players. This allowed Bryant and Stratton to make a comeback towards the end of the match.

Sophomore Alexis Hernandez finished the match with two goals. Hernandez believes the early red card did not play a major role in the Bobcats’ efforts to come back and that his heroic efforts were not enough to give the Chaps the win. Hernandez scored his first goal off a rebound after beating the keeper to the ball and the second came off a penalty attempt after splitting two defenders and being fouled in the box.

“I think it was a completely different game in the first half and second half,” said Hernandez. “First half, we started off well and [I] was able to score two goals. We did get a red card, but I don’t think it made that big of a difference and we still handled that pretty well. As a captain, you never want to see your teammate get a red card, especially a straight direct one. Everyone noticed after the red card that we needed to lock in. Second half, I feel like we completely forgot about being a man down and lacked positioning.”

The Bobcats managed to score in the 67th minute off a rebound put-back shot in the box. Six minutes later, Bryant and Stratton scored off a corner kick attempt after the back post was completely open, allowing a Bobcat player to score. With a minute left in the game, the Chaps were stunned after the Bobcats put together a rapid counterattack to score late in the half to seal the win.

Chaps’ goalkeeper Sam Negus finished the game with 10 saves and believed the defensive line shut down late in the second half to allow the Bobcats to come back into the game.

“I thought we started the game well but as the game went on, we let them come onto us to come back into the game,” said Negus. “We reacted well [after the red card] was given but by the end we let the 10-man get to us. We started stepping back and ended up defending the rest of the game.”

The Chaparrals (1-5) will take Northeast Community College at 8 p.m. on Sept. 16 at Bjarne Ullsvik Stadium.