The No. 7 University of Redlands men's soccer team traveled to San Antonio, TX, earlier this week to face the University of Texas at Tyler in a neutral-site game played at Trinity University (TX). Despite taking the exact same number of shots, the Bulldogs' attempts never came to fruition, eventually resulting in a close 0-1 decision on Friday evening.

Throughout the first 24 minutes of the game, the speed and intensity of the teams appeared to be even, with the Bulldogs gaining a slight edge in the shot margin at 3-1.

During a seven-minute span late in the half, Redlands stepped up the offensive pressure by earning five corner kicks. Junior defender Nick DeQuiroz (San Jose, CA) and senior midfielder Cameron Doody (Arvada, CO) took the corners, but unfortunately, the Bulldogs could not capitalize on the chances, leaving the game scoreless through the 36th minute.

The Redlands backline of senior Ben Thompson (Spokane, WA), senior Keoni Yates (Kailua-Kona, HI), junior Spencer Scott (Beaverton, OR), and sophomore Oswaldo Magallanes (Juneau, AK) worked to stop the Patriot offense, allowing only two shots, with neither going on goal.

After a scoreless first half, UT-Tyler found the breakthrough by slotting one into the net to put the Bulldogs in a slight hole in the 61st minute.

Ten minutes later, Redlands had its best chance to tie it up when the ball escaped a cluster of players in front of the Tyler goal and rolled to Doody's feet. He reared back and blasted a rocket that went just high and bounced off the cross bar. The Maroon and Gray had another good look in the 83rd minute when Thompson poked a header towards the goal but it went wide.

When the final buzzer sounded, Redlands was handed a tough season-opening loss. The Bulldogs look forward to flipping the outcome when they take on No. 12 Trinity University (TX) on Sunday, September 3, in a 7 p.m. CT start at Paul McGinlay Field.