By: Vinnie Birk - Blackburn College Sports Information

The Blackburn College Men's Soccer Team got some warmup action in on Wednesday afternoon in Carlinville. The exhibition against Heartland Community College is a precursor to this Friday's regular season opener against Knox College. 

All of Blackburn's position players saw time on the field and gained some experience in the 5-0 defeat. The attacking force of Heartland was hard to stop as they had 26 shots, 15 of which were on goal. Senior goalkeeper Shane Rogers(Granite City, Ill.) did his best to keep Heartland at bay by compiling 10 saves. 

The Beavers had seven total shots, three of which came off the foot of freshman Jake Pope(Waggoner, Ill.). Other Blackburn players with shots were Leandro Fonteles(Brazil), Sam Lomanto(Riverside, Cali.), Reed Gwillum(Springfield, Ill.). and Lucas Rinderer(Highland, Ill.). Rinderer's blast late in the second half hit the crossbar and kept the Beavers scoreless.

A positve from today's exhibition was the tenacity and discipline showed from the Beavers. Blackburn played hard but only committed six fouls. Heartland, on the other hand, made the referee blow the whistle 17 times for fouls, including a rough yellow card.

Look for the Men's Soccer season preview tomorrow just before the Beavers open up play this weekend.