The No. 11/18 University of Redlands men's soccer team took on No. 8/7 Christopher Newport University (VA) in a nationally-ranked showdown on Friday evening on Farquhar Field. Despite scoring first, the Bulldogs could not counter the fast attack of the CNU Captains and fell by a final score of 1-2 in the non-conference match.
After 10 minutes of backline-to-backline, aggressive play, the Bulldogs earned a throw-in on their offensive third. Junior defender Keoni Yates (Kailua-Kona, HI) took the throw-in and arched it beautifully towards the goal. Junior defender Ben Thompson (Spokane, WA) found the ball in the air and headed it into the goal for his third score of the season.
Although the Captains outshot Redlands by a 7-5 margin in the first half, junior goalkeeper Josh Haskill (Lakewood, CA) made two key saves to keep CNU off the board.
Thanks to the defensive efforts of senior Austin Moore (Las Vegas, NV), Yates, Thompson (Spokane, WA), and sophomore Spencer Scott, many of CNU's shots in the second half were blocked.
In the 72nd minute, the Captains' leading goal-scorer Stephen Durbin was served a great ball, dribbled right, and fired off a shot into the low-left corner past a diving Haskill.
With the score knotted, play became very fast and aggressive, as both teams felt a sense of urgency to create a break-through opportunity.
Six minutes later, CNU capitalized to earn a 2-1 lead.
Although Redlands dominated the offensive play of the final 12 minutes of the game while uncorking three more shots, none were successful, resulting in the Maroon and Gray's first loss of the season.
The Bulldogs (5-1-0) (3-0-0 SCIAC) look to make a quick turnaround as they take on the Whittier College Poets in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) action on Saturday, September 17, at 1 p.m. on Farquhar Field.