WHITTIER, Calif. - For the third time this season, first in regulation, freshman Srdan Jovanovic provided the Whittier College men's soccer team with a game winning goal. Jovanovic tallied the final score at the 87:16 mark as he headed in a free kick from Thomas Barber to lift the Poets to a thrilling 2-1 win over Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe Cal Lutheran.

The Poets (7-4-2, 6-2-2 SCIAC) have now run their unbeaten streak to seven games. WC began its streak with a 5-4 win over the Kingsmen on September 26 and has run off a record of 5-0-2 since the streak began.

Whittier and Cal Lutheran (7-9, 6-5 SCIAC) began the day ranked fifth and third in the SCIAC, respectively, but with the outcome of the contest the teams have switched spots in the standings. The Poets are just a half game back of Redlands, a team they hold a 1-0-1 record over, for second place.

Jovanovic, Adolfo Santos and Joshua Dredge led the offensive charge for the Poets with a combined 11 shots. Jovanovic and Santos placed three shots and one shot, respectively on goal.

As a team the Poets registered 18 shots to CLU's 17 but had two fewer shots on goal.

Michael Read made seven saves in earning his sixth win of the year.

The Poets had several chances in the first 45 minutes to get on the scoreboard but couldn't find the goal. Santos played Whittier's lone first half corner to the back post where Shea Harwell's header hit off the post in the 34th minute.

Nearly five minutes later, in the 39th minute, an illegal touch by the Kingsmen goalie gave the Poets a free kick from inside the box. Barber played the ball back to Dredge who saw his shot sail over the crossbar.

Whittier and Cal Lutheran went into halftime with the score tied 0-0.

The Poets scored the first goal of the game in the 73rd minute on a penalty kick from DJ Covarrubias. The goal was set up by Joseph Gelaro who drew the foul inside the box. Covarrubias shot the ball right as the goalie, Chris Capellini, dove left. The goal was Covarrubias' fourth of the season, third on a penalty kick.

Whittier appeared to go up two goals at 80:16 when Dredge finished a feed from Jovanovic but the Poets were whistled for their third, and final, offsides of the game.

Cal Lutheran found the game's equalizer less than two minutes later as Raul Yepez collected the ball in the middle of the box and placed the it just inside the post at 83:02.

Four minutes later Barber played the free kick that found Jovanovic that won the game for Whittier.

The Poets return to action on Saturday, October 24, as they play host to Claremont-M-S at 11 am in a key SCIAC game. CMS is currently in fourth place in the conference.

Photo by: Tony Leon/Action West Photography