Belleville, IL - The Illinois Central College Men's Soccer Team (8-3-3, 3-2-1) is preparing to kick off their 2024 postseason on Saturday afternoon. The Cougars will travel to Southwestern Illinois in the Region 24 Semifinal, a regular season series that saw the Blue Storm and Cougars tie in East Peoria, with the Blue Storm taking a 7-1 contest in Belleville less than a week ago. While ICC perhaps has vengeance in the backs of their minds, the postseason comes at a perfect time, after a (0-2-1) finish to the regular season - adequate timing to hit the metaphorical reset button. 

HOW'D THE SEASON GO?
The Cougars got red-hot right out of the gate, going on an eight-match unbeaten streak (6-0-2) before running into stalwart and #1-ranked Indian Hills for the first defeat of the season. 

ICC rebounded quickly with wins at Parkland and vs. Lincoln Trail before the aforementioned (0-2-1) regular season conclusion. 

WHO'S LED THE TEAM SO FAR?
The Cougars have had a trio of stars consistently atop the goal-scoring leaderboard. Kristian Istocki (8), Edgar Ludena (6), and Adam Pike (6) make up the top three. 

Pike also finds himself atop the leaderboard in assists with seven. 

Jack Foster has been the lead goalkeeper thus far, GK1, if you will, and has brought in 19 saves in his 11 games in goal in 2024, to go with five clean sheets. 

ABOUT SWIC
The Cougars will have to tango with the nation's leading goal-scorer, Maquan Aldridge. The Blue Storm sophomore leads all NJCAA Division-I players with 21 goals, scoring in 14 of the 21 games he has played in. The 1-1 SWIC draw at ICC in September is one of his limited scoreless games. 

Not to be outdone, Joel Palmer also has gotten into double figures with 10 goals scored. 

As much as Aldridge and Palmer have driven the scoring attack themselves, they've also set up those scoring opportunities, with 8 and 7 assists, respectively. 

The Blue Storm head into this matchup on a four-match win streak, out-scoring opponents 21-5. 

THE TABLE IS SET...
2024 Region 24 Tournament Semifinal
Illinois Central College Cougars (8-3-3)
@ Southwestern Illinois Blue Storm (9-6-4)
Saturday, October 26th - 1:00 PM
at SWIC Main Campus - Belleville, IL
Watch Live (YouTube)