NORMAL, Ill. – No. 9 Parkland College Men's Soccer (1-1, 0-1 MWAC) dropped an early season top-20 match to No. 16 Heartland CC (3-0, 1-0) by the final score of 1-4.
 
Head Coach Mark Sikora lifted the blame for the loss onto himself, expressing, "I did not adequately prepare the team for the difficulty of this match, and we started extremely flat, something that cannot be done against one of the top teams in the country. Their number nine (Daniel Trojman) showed why he is one of the most lethal strikers in the NJCAA."
 
A Parkland foul, 25 seconds into the match, led to an early Heartland goal with the conversion of the penalty kick. The Hawks were dominant in the first half as they added goals in the 28th and 32nd minutes, taking a 3-0 lead into halftime.
 
The Cobras pushed back after the break, finding the back of the net on a Cameron Walker free kick in the 75th minute. Parkland continued to push forward in pursuit of more goals, but, just two minutes later, Heartland scored its fourth on a counterattack. The Cobras continued to press but could not unlock the Hawks defense a second time.
 
"The hole was too big to dig out of, but, once our guys got into the pace of the game, we saw some good things," added Sikora.  "The second half was much more even, and we got great contributions from our midfield group of Cameron Walker, Mikey Garza, Matheus Araujo, and Ata Marin.  They gave us some spark, but it just wasn't enough today."
 
Up next, the Cobras are in Champaign, Ill., to host Southwestern Illinois College for a 4:00 pm match on Wednesday, April 14.