REDLANDS, Calif. – Graduate Student Collin ChubbFertal (Eugene, OR) propelled the University of Redlands Men's Soccer team to a 1-0 victory Saturday night at Farquhar Field as he connected for the golden goal in overtime.
The Maroon and Grey have now won four in a row and six of their last seven as they improve to 9-1-1, 5-1-1 SCIAC. They pick up a crucial three points within the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings sitting in sole possession of 2nd place with 16 points trailing Claremont-M-S by six (22).
After 97 minutes of scoreless soccer the Bulldogs found the game winner in the 98th off the foot of ChubbFertal. It all started with a nice combination play on the left side between Jonathan Cheung (Hong Kong, China) and Steve Acuña (Pico Rivera, CA). Cheung drove with the ball centrally, connected to Avery Jacobson (Seattle, WA) at the top of the box. Jacobson then hit a reverse pass to Quinn Richards (San Clemente, CA) on the left side, which he then one-timed to ChubbFertal. ChubbFertal then took a touch and buried his shot low to the right side past a diving La Verne keeper Logan Reese.
A total of 10 passes were connected in the sequence before Chubbfertal finished with the golden goal.
The Bulldogs controlled from start to finish and totaled 40 shots, 12 of which were on frame. In the first half they connected for 13 shots, but only one had eyes, which was saved by Reese. Then in the second half UR continued to pepper the keeper adding another 23 shots, three of which were added within the first ten minutes, first a header from Acuña, then two strikes in the box by Mikey Flota (West Covina, CA) and ChubbFertal.
In the 67th minute Jacobson had a pair of looks back to back, but again Reese would deny both. Down the stretch UR had three more opportunities all coming on headers from Matt Beasley (Las Vegas, CA) and Richards, but all three were turned away as the game went into extra time.
La Verne got the crowd on the edge of their seats at the start of OT as they got off an early strike that was just off the mark. They then earned three corner kicks after that and a header, but they came away empty.
Redlands held the advantage on shots (40-10) and corner kicks (8-4). Ethan Kovach (Las Vegas, NV) totaled six shots on the game, Jacobson with five and Arian Mogharei (Hayward, CA) and ChubbFertal each with four.
Aidan McSweeny (San Diego, CA) and Seth Lawrence (Redlands, CA) combined for the shutout. McSweeny did not need to record a save in the first half but Lawrence did in the second turning away two shots to help preserve the win.
Redlands remains at home next Wednesday, October 13 when they host Chapman University beginning at 7:00pm.