Photo by: Sydney Nakagawa

ORANGE, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Soccer team opened up their 2021 slate Wednesday afternoon as they cruised to the 3-1 road victory over Chapman University.

Following a pair of tough exhibition match-ups against Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State San Bernardino the Bulldogs (1-0) proved tough to handle as they came out and controlled from start to finish.

The game remained tight throughout with both teams combining for eight shots a piece, while Chapman held a 9-3 edge on corner kicks.  The Bulldogs broke through with the lone goal in the first half off the foot of Steve Acuña (Pico Rivera, CA) coming at the 6:00 mark.  Jamie Dulle (St. Louis, MO) played a nice through ball down the left side to Acuna who took one touch and slotted a left footed shot to the bottom right corner of the goal giving UR a 1-0 advantage heading into the break. 

A minute into the second half the Panthers leveled the game at 1-1 following an unassisted strike by Aidan Wall.  But that's the closest CU would get as Redlands would get the eventual game winner in the 62:00 minute from Arian Mogharei (Hayward, CA).  He muscled his way through the midfield, played the ball wide to Joseph Parra (West Covina, CA) who then crossed the ball on the ground into the box.  The Chapman keeper was able to get a hand on it but it spilled right into the path of Mogharei who finished from eight yards out.

The final connection came under five minutes to play from Quinn Richards (San Clemente, CA).  Ethan Kovach (Las Vegas NV) served a deep cross that was poorly cleared by the Chapman defense.  It fell to Richards who took a nice touch and turned before ripping a low right footed shot to the keeper's right, coming from 16 yards out.       

Both Aidan McSweeny (San Diego, CA) and Seth Lawrence (Redlands, CA) combined for the victory between the posts, while Richards and Chad Feingold (Los Gatos, CA) each recorded a pair of shots.    

The Bulldogs return to the pitch next weekend for a pair of non-conference games against Whitworth University (Fri., September 10 @ 7:00pm) and Oglethorpe (Sunday, September 12 @ 5:00pm).