By Derek Brightwell–

The ninth ranked Cardinals closed their home season with their second straight scoreless draw, this time against SIU Edwardsville, bringing their overall record to 8-5-3 as they head into their regular season finale at conference foe Wake Forest.

“(I’m) Disappointed. Disappointed in the result, but more disappoint in our overall energy tonight, our approach to the game,” head coach Ken Lolla said. “And at the end, it’s probably a fair result because we just didn’t do enough to win it.”

Statistically, Louisville dominated the Cougars, taking 15 shots to SIUE’s four. But a number of offsides calls killed several of the Cards breaks.

“They were playing a high line and the timing wasn’t good, especially in the first half,” Lolla said. “Had we timed our runs and the balls in behind, we probably would’ve gotten in in the first half because they were playing very high. In the second half, they dropped a little more, but I think it had more to do with timing than anything else.”

Sophomore goalkeeper Daniel Brennan, who started in place of an injured Joachim Ball, recorded one save for his first career shutout in his first career start.

“Daniel’s been doing great in training. He’s continuing to improve,” Lolla said of the sophomore. “He’s shown himself to be a guy we can count on in situations like this. We felt very comfortable with him in goal. We felt very comfortable with him getting the shut out and managing the game and I thought he did a great job tonight.”

“It was good, felt really good. I was really excited to get in and play,” Brennan said of his first start. “I thought the team did very well, the defenders were very organized in front of me. I thought in the second half, we really picked it up and got really stuck in early which is exactly what we needed, and in the overtimes. Just really unfortunate not to score.”

Brennan, who is an Edwardsville native, said that while it was fun to play against players he played with back home, it didn’t add any extra importance to the game for him.

Early in the game, junior Jerry Ramirez left the game in a scary collision with Jacob Wieser of SIUE. While he never returned, Lolla said that he could have but they kept him out as a precaution for the Wake Forest game.

The Saturday game at Wake Forest could decide the ACC Atlantic Division, as the Cards are in a three-way tie with Syracuse and Clemson, but hold the tie breaker with both due to head-to-head and point differential, respectively. Wake Forest currently places fourth in the division behind them.