The No. 13 University of Redlands men's soccer team welcomed Whittier College to Farquhar Field for a Wednesday night Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) contest. After garnering a 2-1 lead in the first half, Redlands went on to score two more to secure the 4-1 conference victory over the Poets.
In the ninth minute, senior midfielder Casey ChubbFertal (Eugene, OR) chipped a nice ball over the defenders for senior midfielder Sergio Valencia (San Jose, CA) to head it in for the early Maroon and Gray advantage.
Although the Poets earned three corner kicks in the next 10 minutes of action, the Redlands defensive unit of senior Ben Thompson (Spokane, WA), junior Joey Kenney (Portland, OR), and sophomores Matias Lazo-Fanning (Seattle, WA) and Dylan Carlyle (San Jose, CA) was quick to minimize any Whittier scoring opportunities.
In the 30th minute, ChubbFertal arched a nice, high throw-in towards goal that found the head of Kenney for the score.
Unfortunately, the Poets pulled within one on a successful penalty kick six minutes before halftime.
After the break, Redlands was re-energized to put up some more goals on the board.
After Carlyle took a corner in the 66th minute, the ball popped back out to him. He re-sent the ball back into the box, where Kenney got his head on it before senior forward Chase Boone (Beaverton, OR) headed it to the back of the net for a 3-1 Bulldog advantage.
Just six minutes later at the 71:28-mark, there was a scramble in the box following a corner kick. Senior forward Cameron Doody (Arvada, CO) found space and fired the ball past the goalkeeper for the fourth and final Redlands' goal.
Senior goalkeeper John Melito (Keller, TX) was tested in his 80 minutes between the posts, making five unbelievable saves. Senior goalkeeper Josh Haskill (Lakewood, CA) came in to close out the final 10 minutes and stepped up to the challenge by registering three incredible saves in the short time-span to secure the victory.
The Bulldogs (11-3-1, 10-0-1 SCIAC) travel to Cal Lutheran University on Saturday, October 21, for a 2 p.m. SCIAC game.
