For four straight seasons, the Heartland men's soccer team has battled with Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC)-Essex in pool play of the NJCAA DII National Tournament. Despite a valiant second half effort in this season's National Tournament, the No. 10-seeded Hawks fell to the third-seeded Knights 2-1 on Sunday afternoon at Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.
 
The Hawks opened the contest with solid energy, maintaining possession for much of the opening 35 minutes of the contest. Mental lapses doomed the Hawks for the remainder of the half, as the Knights scored in the 34^th and 39^th minutes to open up a 2-0 advantage heading into the halftime break.
 
Head coach Matthew Kemp knew his squad still had some fight left in them, and it showed as the Hawks pulled to within one goal with a score by Marcos Mateos in the 60^th minute on an Andreas Winther assist.
 
The Hawks outshot the Knights 13 to five on the afternoon, including seven shots on goal compared to two by CCBC-Essex. Although the Hawks had multiple opportunities to connect for the remainder of the half, the Knights held strong for the remainder of the frame to open pool play with a victory.
 
Heartland will return to action at 4:00 PM CST on Monday, where they will take on the sixth-seeded Schoolcraft College Ocelots in the final pool play contest.