EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Western Michigan men's soccer team suffered its first loss of the season, falling in its Mid-American Conference opener at SIU-Edwardsville on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Broncos outshot the Cougars 13-6 overall but two early goals had them playing catch up. Daniel Nimick was the lone goal scorer for WMU.
 
"It was a poor performance," said head coach Chad Wiseman. "Right from the opening whistle I thought we were immature and we lacked the intensity to win conference games. The personnel selections on the day were wrong, and that's on me."
 
SIUE took an early lead with a goal in the 8th minute. Jacob Bilyeau tallied from five yards out in front of the net off a pass from Kelby Phillips.
 
The Cougars capitalized again, his time in the 30th minute. This time it was Phillips setting up Oskar Lenz from the goals.
 
From there, SIUE bunkered down and ceded possession to WMU.
 
It took until the 72nd minute for the Broncos to get on the board. WMU had a free kick and Brennan Creek nudged it off to Nimick, who struck the ball from just outside the 18-yard box and into the net for his first goal of the season.
 
"We had enough quality chances to score five or six goals on the day but we wasted chance after chance," Wiseman added. "I thought we got some positive performances off the bench with Dante Bailey having a fantastic run out and Landon Fisher gave us a nice spark."
 
"This result stings," said Wiseman. "We've got to play 90 minutes in order to win games in the MAC and we didn't do that today."
 
The Broncos head on the road to Spring Arbor on Wednesday for a game at 4 p.m. before returning to Kalamazoo or their home-opener against West Virginia on Sunday at 1 p.m.