CLAREMORE, Okla. – The Rogers State men's soccer team opened the 2014 Heartland Conference portion of the schedule with a 5-1 loss to visiting St. Mary's Saturday night at Soldier Field.
 
Junior Mitchell Sowerby's first goal of the season gave the Hillcats life late in the first half getting RSU within one in the 42nd minute. Sowerby collected a pass from Chris Perez and sent a bullet-of-a-shot caroming off the far post and past StMU goalkeeper Mitchell Kilmer cutting the deficit to 2-1, but the Rattlers poured in three-straight goals to earn the conference victory on the road.
 
St. Mary's opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when Victor Luna picked up a misplayed ball inside the Hillcat penalty area and sent a shot into the open goal for a 1-0 lead. The Rattlers doubled their advantage in the 36th minute as Jack Wolf tucked a perfect strike past RSU starting goalkeeper Mitchell Penton inside the right post.
 
Wolf tallied his second goal of the match just before the halftime buzzer scoring with 56 seconds showing on the clock regaining the two-goal advantage for StMU again capitalizing on a turnover in the RSU defensive third.
 
The Rattlers added two insurance goals coming in the 64th and 85th minutes past RSU's Joey Arnold, who entered the goal in relief for the second half, closing out the win.
 
Kilmer made three saves in the conference-opening victory pushing StMU to 4-3-2 overall while Penton took the loss for the Hillcats.
 
RSU, 3-5 overall and 0-1 in the Heartland Conference, returns to action Monday afternoon when it hosts Texas A&M International at 2:30 p.m. at Soldier Field. The match will be streamed live on the Hillcat Network at www.rsuhillcats.com/live.