East Peoria, IL - The #11 Illinois Central College men's soccer team will open post-season play on Tuesday afternoon as they host Southwestern Illinois at 1pm at Eastside Center. The Cougars earned the #2 seed and are ready to make noise in the post-season after playing several ranked teams throughout the fall.

Coach Gabe Carreno beefed up the schedule this season and it has paid off for the Cougars, who are 9-4-4 so far on the year. ICC has several impressive results on their resume, including wins over #5 Daytona State and #11 Lewis & Clark while they have tied with #8 Miami Dade, #1 Iowa Western and #10 Indian Hills. 

"The team is heading into the region tournament focused and humble about the task at hand," Carreno said. "This season has had us at different heights and we've had to face barriers. We managed to stay ranked amongst the top teams and we're going to use that as motivation to keep winning important games. We have a lot to prove for ourselves---we speak about being great a lot and know that we are accountable for showing that on game day." 

Nathan Le Roux leads the team with 12 goals on the season to go along with 3 assists while Pierrot Mourton has 6 assists and 6 goals. 

The regular season series with SWIC has been a tight one as the teams tied 1-1 on October 4. The Cougars then lost by forfeit on October 14.

Tuesday's winner plays in the Region Championship on November 1 against the winner of #1 Lewis & Clark vs. #4 Lincoln Trail. Time and location are TBA.