The BG Men’s soccer team competed in the Panther Invitational against Marquette and Milwaukee but lost both games this weekend. It lost one to Marquette 3-0 Friday afternoon and to Milwaukee Sunday afternoon 2-0.

“We came to Milwaukee to play two nationally-ranked teams this weekend,” head coach Eric Nichols said. “We knew that playing these two very good teams would give us a good opportunity to test ourselves and see where we stand. We are not there yet, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

Friday, against the No. 16 ranked Marquette Golden Eagles, the Falcons were tied 0-0 going into the halftime break. In the second half the Golden Eagles came out and opened the scoring early in the second half with a goal by Adam Lysak from 15 yards out four minutes into the half.

The score stayed 1-0 for about 20 minutes until Golden Eagle Louis Bennett II put another goal to give them a 2-0 lead. Within ten minutes, the Golden Eagles got the finishing goal by their forward C. Nortey to put them in the lead 3-0.

On Sunday, the Falcons were forced to forget their loss on Friday as they were going against the No. 4 ranked Milwaukee Panthers. Milwaukee is the only team to beat the Golden Eagles this season as they beat them on their season opener when the Golden Eagles were ranked ninth.

The Falcons started the game off with a few good scoring opportunities from forward Anthony Grant but both shots were saved by the Panther goalkeeper.

The Panthers scored the first goal and eventual winning goal in minute 34 with a shot across the penalty box by Rami Younes. The game would stay at 1-0 until minute 60, when the Panthers would score off a penalty kick by Robbie Boyd. The Falcons would have no other serious scoring chances in the second half and the game would end with a Panthers 2-0 victory.

“I’m confident, though, that we will learn our lessons from this trip, and we will build from it,” Nichols said.

The Falcons will be back in action against Ohio State at Cochrane Field Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.