Tacoma, Wash. – With an impressive 4-1 victory, the University of Redlands men's soccer team silenced Pacific Lutheran University's boisterous home crowd at East Field during Sunday's second round of the NCAA Division III Championships.
With a 17-2-1 record, the Bulldogs head to Tufts University (MA) to face Connecticut College in the third round on Saturday, November 20.
After the Lutes converted a penalty kick in the 13th minute, Redlands responded with the equalizer about 10 minutes later. Graduate student midfielder Collin ChubbFertal (Eugene, OR) sent a thru-ball toward the left side, where junior forward Ethan Kovach (Las Vegas, NV) hammered it to the far post to make it 1-1.
But the Bulldogs wanted more and kept pressuring PLU, as graduate defender Arian Mogharei (Hayward, CA) and senior forward Steve Acuña (Pico Rivera, CA) produced a pair of quality shots.
Late in the half, Redlands snagged the 2-1 lead when junior forward Jamie Dulle (St. Louis, MO) served a beautiful ball into the box that found sophomore midfielder Spencer Palmer (San Diego, CA), who trapped it with his chest and then fired it into the back of the net for the eventual game-winner.
Following Head Coach Ralph Perez's halftime speech, the Bulldogs returned to the field with a new sense of poise and determination. The Maroon and Grey unleashed five shots over the first 16 minutes of the second half, putting the Lutes on their heels.
In the 76th minute, Redlands earned back-to-back corner kicks, with the second one leading to a 3-1 advantage. Dulle collected a loose ball off the initial set-piece, found space, and then sent it back into the box from the opposite side of the field to an open Mogharei for a solid header past the defense.
Five minutes later, Dulle put the icing on the cake of a phenomenal victory. After Acuña beat a pair of defenders, he fired off a near-post shot that was saved but not controlled by Lute goalkeeper Nicolas Gaston. ChubbFertal was there to redirect the loose ball with a quick, backward flick to Dulle, who tapped it in for the score.
Overall, Redlands took 18 shots, compared to PLU's eight, while the Lutes won the corner-kick battle, 6-2.
Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Seth Lawrence (Redlands, CA) made two saves, while senior defender Peyton Menti (Seattle, WA), graduate student defender Mikey Flota (West Covina, CA), and junior defender Matt Beasley (Las Vega, NV) stepped up to the task of denying the Lutes.
Pacific Lutheran University completes the 2021 season with a 14-6-1 overall record.