Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College men's soccer team fell upon some lucky times Wednesday evening as Occidental College helped propel the Poets to victory after an own goal in the 52nd minute put Whittier in front 2-1 helping them achieve their second SCIAC victory.
With the win Whittier now improves to 2-5, 2-1 SCIAC, while Occidental drops to 2-2, 1-2 SCIAC.
Occidental who was coming off of an upset win over the Stags of Claremont-M-S a few nights prior fell into a hole early as Whittier's Brian Russell added the go ahead goal two minutes in. Adolfo Santos who was back from injury took a corner and sent a ball long that was headed back into the box by Jon Elvins right to Russell who tapped in his first goal of the season.
Two minutes later senior midfielder Srdan Jovanovic had a golden opportunity to give the Poets some insurance having a one on one situation with Tiger goalkeeper Ian Agrimis, but Jovanovic was unable to find the back of the net driving a shot right at Agrimis who collected one of his three saves on the evening.
From that point on Whittier found themselves in a defensive battle turning away shot after shot put on by the Tigers for the rest of the half. With no luck finding the back of the net against a stingy Poet defensive unit, Occidental found an opening to get on the board when Reid Sakamoto was taken down in the box with 10 seconds to go prior to halftime. This gave him a penalty kick, which he connected on tying the game up at 1-1 going into the half.
Coming out in the second half and with the score knotted up at 1-1, Whittier's Elvins and Russell took back to back shots before a corner kick was issued to the Poets. Santos took the corner and sent a ball into the box, which ricocheted off of Oxy defender Douglas Pentland's shin guard as he attempted to clear the ball but sometimes a bad bounce is all it takes as he deflected the ball into a vacant net that proved to be the deciding goal.
Late it the second half, Oxy had an opportunity from Daniel Watson to tie up the score but was unable to connect on a shot from inside the right corner of the Poets box, having it sail just wide.
Whittier held a 15-12 advantage in shots for the game with twelve coming in the second half, while the Poet defensive unit held the Tigers to a mere five shots in the second stanza.
Russell and Jovanovic sparked the Poets on offense taking four shots a piece, while Santos and Dylan Fortin took two.
In the victory, senior David Diaz collected three saves.
The Purple & Gold look to pick up their third SCIAC victory as they host Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, September 22 beginning at 7:00pm.
