WHITTIER, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Soccer team wrapped up a perfect week edging the Whittier College Poets 2-1 in a crucial road contest Saturday night.
The Maroon and Grey move to 7-1-1, 4-1-1 SCIAC, while the Poets drop to 4-3, 2-3 SCIAC. UR has now gone 4-0-1 over their past five games and have outshot their opponents 27-10 on the season as they sit in sole possession of 2nd place within the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Standings.
Steve Acuña (Pico Rivera, CA) got things started for the Bulldogs getting a shot off early in the first minute, which hit the post. He then came down a few minutes later and got off another look, but this time it was blocked, which earned a corner for UR. He took the ensuing kick and found Matt Beasley (Las Vegas, NV) in the box for the header, but his shot missed wide.
The Bulldogs finally connected in the 23rd minute. Following a shot from Joseph Parra (West Covina, CA) that was blocked U of R earned another corner kick and this time they would finish. Ethan Kovach (Las Vegas, NV) stuck a tackle on the right side, took the ball and dribbled inside the box before cracking a left footed shot near post that beat the WC keeper. Out of the break leading 1-0 Redlands faced pressure from the Purple & Gold seeing three shots taken by WC in the first ten minutes, two of which were saved by Seth Lawrence (Redlands, CA) between the posts.
But the Maroon and Grey stopped that run and would answer with Collin ChubbFertal (Eugene, OR) getting a shot off that was saved followed by a Kovach shot that was blocked earning Redlands another corner kick. Acuña whipped in the ensuing kick finding Beasley who muscled his way past his defender before poking in the game winner with his left foot in front of the goal.
Whittier continued to push over the final 30:00 minutes and was able to cut the deficit to one after Banks Telkamp and Daniel Hayes found Lawrence Dydell. After that the game picked up with a combined nine shots being taken. Kovach and Nicolas Mancilla (Pasadena, CA) put two shots on frame in the 67th minute, both being turned away from Poet keeper Teddy Nickerson. Kovach took another in the 83rd minute, which was blocked and ChubbFertal added the final look with three minutes to play again being denied by Nickerson.
The Purple & Gold had their looks for the equalizer down the stretch with Nainoa Loschky getting two shots off that were both turned away by Lawrence. Dydell looked to get his second of the game at the 86:47 mark, but again Lawrence proved tough to beat as he would get his fifth save of the period helping UR hold on for the road win.
Despite being outshot on the game 14-12, Redlands held the advantage on corner kicks 4-3 and saves 6-4. Aidan McSweeny (San Diego, CA) played the first half in goal and added a stop, while Lawrence finished things off with another five saves.
Redlands returns home next Wednesday, October 6 to host UC Santa Cruz in a non-conference match-up. Game time set for 7:00pm.