REDLANDS, Calif. – The No. 19 ranked University of Redlands Men's Soccer team wrapped up their non-conference schedule on Wednesday night, blanking UC Santa Cruz 3-0 at Farquhar Field.
The Maroon and Grey continue to play good soccer at home, improving to 8-1-1, 4-1-1 SCIAC, while UC Santa Cruz drops to 3-6-2. It was a story of two halves with the first 45:00 minutes remaining scoreless before UR put up three goals on six shots in the second half.
Collin ChubbFertal (Eugene, OR) had the first look for the Bulldogs in the 30th minute, which was blocked. Then, right before the half, U of R got off another two shots from Chad Feingold (Los Gatos, CA) and Mikey Flota (West Covina, CA), which were both turned away by Banana Slug keeper Arman Salimi.
This momentum carried over into the second half with the Bulldogs earning the first three shots and two corners. In the 64th minute, Jamie Dulle (St. Louis, MO) put Redlands on the scoreboard, which proved to be the game-winner. Following a corner kick from Steve Acuña (Pico Rivera, CA), which was poorly cleared, Dulle took a touch and blasted a low shot through the crowd of players in the box and past Salimi.
But UR wasn't done there, coming back three minutes later in the 67th minute to add another, this time from Ethan Kovach (Las Vegas, NV). He stuck a tackle on the UCSC defender on the right side of the box and immediately ripped a half volley to the far side of the goal from a tight angle.
Ten minutes later, Paetin Nelson (Portland, OR) got into the mix by adding insurance for the Maroon and Grey. A nice passing sequence found the foot of Phillip Kostenko (Sammamish, WA), who touched it to the backline and into the path of Nelson, who crushed a shot from 18-yards out to the left side of the goal for his first collegiate connection.
The Bulldogs held the slight advantage on shots (11-9), shots on goal (5-3), and corner kicks (8-5). Aidan McSweeny (San Diego, CA) got the win, moving to 5-0 on the season. He played the final 45:00 minutes, needing only one save but it was a great one, diving to his left to keep the shutout.
Redlands returns to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play this Saturday, October 9 when they host the University of La Verne beginning at 7:00pm.
