IRVINE, Calif. – Sunday was as difficult as Saturday for the Poets as an 11-7 loss to SCIAC rival Redlands capped an 0-4 effort at the UC Irvine Invitational. The day started with the difficult task of trying to slow down Southern California who ran up a 30-2 win over Whittier.

Redlands scored five first quarter goals against the Poets and held the purple and gold without a scoring strike in the second frame en route to the four goal win.

The Poets had six different goal scorers led by Erick Gonzalez who made good on two attempts. Gonzalez also won the opening sprint of the first, second and fourth quarters to go along with a pair of assists and one drawn ejection.

Rilesh Desai dished out two of his own assists and added one goal while Chris Sazo, Keary Schlactus, Joey Kienle and Wes Paulson all added one score.

The Bulldogs managed three goals in the second quarter which proved enough to hold on for the win. Whittier outscored Redlands 4-3 in the second half.

The combination of Chad Evenrud and Chris Maloney made 10 saves for the game.

The day started with the lopsided loss to national power USC.

Gonzalez scored his first of three goals for the day against the Trojans while Asante Sefa-Boakye added the other goal for Whittier in a man-up situation.

For the weekend the Poets faced two Top 10 teams in the Division I polls and the top two ranked teams in the Division III polls.

Next week Whittier will face three SCIAC foes in non-conference games in addition to UC Davis. Occidental, Claremont-M-S and a rematch with Redlands are all on tap for the Inland Empire Classic which takes place at the University of Redlands on Saturday, September 11, and Sunday, September 12.