The No. 13 University of Redlands men's soccer team traveled to Claremont on a cloudy Monday afternoon to take on the Pomona-Pitzer Colleges Sagehens in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) match-up. Despite a late surge of energy from the Bulldogs, the visiting team suffered its second conference loss of the season with today's 1-2 decision.
Although the Maroon and Gray out-shot the Sagehens by a slight 5-4 margin in the first frame, Pomona-Pitzer found the back of the net twice to grab a 2-0 lead by halftime.
While facing a deficit, the Bulldogs kicked it into high gear with a more organized offensive attack. Junior forward Chase Boone (Beaverton, OR) stepped up for the Maroon and Gray by chipping one into the back corner of the net less than 10 minutes into the second half.
In a total-team effort, Redlands continued to stay aggressive with a 9-2 advantage on shots in the second half, with four different Bulldogs registering two attempts by the final whistle.
The Maroon and Gray used an array of defenders, including seniors Colin Zaccagnio (Phoenix, AZ) and Austin Moore (Las Vegas, NV), juniors Ben Thompson (Spokane, WA) and Keoni Yates (Kailua-Kona, HI), sophomores Spencer Scott (Beaverton, OR) and Nick DeQuiroz (San Jose, CA), and freshman Rudy Frayre (Santa Monica, CA), who kept the ball on the Sagehens' half of the field most of the second half. This allowed for junior goalkeeper John Melito (Keller, TX) to only have to make one save in the final 45 minutes.
In the last 10 minutes of the game, the Bulldogs blasted off six shots but to no avail. Unfortunately when the final buzzer sounded, the Maroon and Gray remained down by a score of 1-2. Following only its second conference loss of the year, Redlands remains atop the SCIAC standings with three games to play in the regular season.
The Bulldogs (13-3-0, 11-2-0 SCIAC) look to bounce back when they travel to Orange on Saturday, October 22, to face the Panthers of Chapman University in a SCIAC showdown. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m.