Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LA VERNE, Calif. – A day after returning from a three day road trip, the Whittier College men's soccer team opened up SCIAC play against the University of La Verne and came away with their first victory of the season 4-2.
Whittier now improves to 1-3, 1-0 SCIAC, while La Verne drops to 2-2-1, 0-1 SCIAC.
From start to finish it was all Poets as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead entering the break. Senior midfielder Srdan Jovanovic tacked on the first goal for the Poets again adding to his goal total for the season as he recorded his fourth goal beating Leopard keeper Darrin Bangle in transition in the 18th minute.
Whittier quickly added to that as junior Francis Maxwell added back to back goals, his first two of the season with both coming off of assists from Jovanovic in the 24th and 31st minutes.
With time running down before the half, Poet junior defender Khaled Gara got into the mix and converted on his first goal of the season off of a Brian Russell corner kick, which he headed in to run the score to 4-0.
La Verne came out of the break aggressive as Boye Christiansen found the back of the net on a Fernando Almejo assist bringing the Leopards within three. Later in the second half in the 67th minute, the Leopards Andrew Geenen connected on a penalty kick to pull within two but that's as close as they would get as Whittier's defense in the final twenty minutes held strong securing the 4-2 victory.
The Purple & Gold return to the field tomorrow evening, September 12 as they travel to take on the Panthers of Chapman University beginning at 4:00pm.
