The University of Redlands men's soccer team faced No. 16 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday afternoon in a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) matchup on Homecoming weekend. Through 110-minutes of intense action and playing a man down for 85 of those minutes, the Bulldogs battled the Stags to a 0-0 stalemate.
Prior to the match, Redlands honored its seven seniors including midfielders Kalle Sjogrell (Danville, CA), Matias Lazo-Fanning (Seattle, WA), and Dylan Carlyle (Ottawa, CAN), defenders Oswaldo Magallanes (Juneau, AK), and Rudy Frayre (Los Angeles, CA), and goalkeepers Emilio Raby-Newsom (Chicago, IL) and Noah Natividad (San Diego, CA).
Once the game got underway, neither team created many opportunities in the first half with physical defense from both sides. The Stags gained the first opportunity with a header off of a corner kick, but first-year goalkeeper Adrian Muñoz (Pasadena, CA) was there to make the save. The Bulldogs' best chance of the half came from first-year forward Ethan Kovach (Las Vegas), whose shot was blocked by the CMS defense.
Action got going right away in the second half with an attempt from CMS that was saved by Muñoz. On the counter, Kovach launched another shot on target that was stopped by the Stags.
In the 54th minute, first-year midfielder Joseph Parra (West Covina, CA) nearly put one away as he forced the CMS goalkeeper to sprint deep outside of the box to make the 1-on-1 stop.
Muñoz continued to shine in net for the Bulldogs with several tough saves, including a point-blank header attempt from the Stags in the 73rd minute. Less than two minutes later, he corralled another header off of a corner to keep CMS scoreless. Following an on-target shot from sophomore midfielder Avery Jacobson (Seattle, WA), Muñoz rose to the occasion once again to make two impressive saves on another Stag corner.
Junior midfielder Derrin Valeri (Atlanta, GA) earned one more attempt in the 87th minute, but CMS made the stop to send the game into extra time.
The Stags worked for three shots in the first overtime, while Kovach took a shot for Redlands, but neither connected, leading to a second overtime. The best opportunity for the Bulldogs came from sophomore forward Steve Acuña (Pico Rivera, CA), who maneuvered his way across the middle to get a shot off, but it just missed wide. Both teams remained steady on defense to end the game with a 0-0 draw.
Muñoz ended the evening with eight saves and his second clean sheet of the season.
Redlands (7-4-3, 6-2-2 SCIAC) remains at home to face the University of La Verne on Wednesday, October 30, at 7 p.m.
