FAYETTE, Iowa – Upper Iowa men's soccer (0-1) dropped its season opener in a 3-1 loss to St. Cloud State (1-0) on Thursday. Despite being tied 1-1 in the first half, the Peacocks were unable to match the final two goals scored by the Huskies.

St. Cloud State scored first during the 17th minute. Diego Ramos found the back of the net shortly after UIU's Florian Deick received a yellow card. Upper Iowa responded quickly, tying the match just minutes later with a goal from Julian Mesen—his first of the season.

The second period remained knotted up with UIU stopping a couple of shot attempts. However, Peacocks committed a costly foul to that gave the lead back to SCSU after a penalty goal kick by Andres Garcia (1-2) at the 52:02 mark.

In the second period, the Peacocks attempted to score goal off of shots by Mesen and James Moody, but were unsuccessful. The Huskies on the other hand, were able to score their second goal around the 86-minute mark.

After a foul by the Peacocks, SCSU's Owen Worsdell attempted two shots on the goal with the first one blocked by JJ Gonzalez-Hayes and the second rebounded into the net. That gave St. Cloud the final nail in the coffin to give them a 3-1 win.

Gonzalez-Hayes, Dexter Garrett, Jeremiah Goko and Matas Dumalakas all played the full 90 minutes.

Mesen finished with two shots and a goal. Moody tied his career best two shots on goal. Dumalakas had his first career shot on goal.

Upper Iowa falls to 4-3 all-time against their former Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) opponent. They look to bounce back at St. Ambrose on Sat. Sep., 6^th at 3 p.m. in Davenport.