The No. 7 University of Redlands men's soccer team traveled to Occidental College on Wednesday evening for the opening Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) contest of the season. Despite being on the road for the third match in a row, the Bulldogs settled into a nice rhythm from one end of the field to the other and secured the 2-0 win over the Tigers.
It was all Bulldog offense to start the contest, as the visiting team earned four corner kicks and fired off one shot in the first 28 minutes of action. Senior forward Chase Boone (Beaverton, OR) unleashed the shot, while senior midfielders Sergio Valencia (San Jose, CA) and Alexander Knox (Seattle, WA) took the corners. Unfortunately, Redlands could not capitalize on the opportunities.
However, just two minutes later, Valencia successfully found senior midfielder Casey ChubbFertal (Eugene, OR), who sent the ball past the Tiger goalkeeper for the 1-0 Redlands advantage.
In the 39th minute, senior goalkeeper Josh Haskill (Lakewood, CA) stepped up with a nice save to keep the Tigers off the board. He went on to earn three saves in nearly 73 minutes of action.
Following halftime, Occidental stepped up its offensive pressure to fire off the first shot of the second stanza, but the Redlands defense answered the call to block the shot. However, the Tigers earned a corner kick on the ensuing play, but Redlands recovered the ball and took advantage of an immediate counter-attack. The Maroon and Gray worked the ball into its offensive third, where Knox knocked the ball towards the center of the goal for sophomore forward Antony Chonga (San Diego, CA) to redirect it into the back of the net for the 2-0 lead less than three minutes into the frame.
In the 55th minute, Boone attempted to tack on another goal for Redlands but his shot ricocheted off the post.
The Tigers continued to challenge Haskill and senior goalkeeper John Melito (Keller, TX), who entered the game in the 73rd minute, but the pair came up with the necessary saves to preserve the shutout. In addition, juniors Spencer Scott (Beaverton, OR) and Nick DeQuiroz (San Jose, CA), and seniors Keoni Yates (Kailua-Kona, HI) and Ben Thompson (Spokane, WA) provided a high-quality backline for the Bulldogs.
Redlands (1-2, 1-0 SCIAC) looks forward to hosting No. 20 Carnegie Mellon University (PA) on Friday, September 8, in a 6 p.m. non-conference game on Farquhar Field.