Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Whittier College men's soccer team who was in charge of their own destiny Saturday evening having to win out the rest of the season to earn the program's first SCIAC Championship Title saw it put on hold as they fell 1-0 to Cal Lutheran University.
With the loss the Poets drop to 10-6-1, 9-4-1 SCIAC, snap a three game winning streak and now drop into a tie for fourth place with Chapman University with two games remaining on the schedule.
In the first half Whittier peppered the CLU goal with 11 shots while the Kingsmen generated just six and the Poets tacked on nine, one more than CLU, in the final half to finish with 20 with Cal Lutheran tallying 14, but the one that got through made all the difference. WC had a 16-3 advantage on corner kicks tonight as well.
Whittier had three consecutive opportunities on one play in the 20th minute from Lucas Depinna (Portland, OR), Ian Cromwell (Pleasanton, Calif.), and Francis Maxwell (Clydebank, Scotland), but all three shots were blocked keeping the Poets off the scoreboard.
The teams battled to a scoreless first half before the Kingsmen tallied the eventual game winner in the 58th minute from Matt Hubbard who was assisted by Tyler Pascoe.
Over the final nine minutes of regulation Whittier earned three corner kicks and had a header attempt, but goalkeeper Jack Duncan came up with two huge stops to keep the Poets off the board and secure the victory for CLU.
Whittier was paced by team-leading scorer Maxwell who fired off a game-high six shots, though only one was on target. Cromwell finished with four and Gregorio Giorgi (Bologna, Italy) tallied three. WC goalie Jorge Rivas (Lake Forest, Calif.) was tagged with the loss after saving three shots.
Whittier looks to bounce back as they return home for a match-up with Chapman University Monday, October 28 beginning at 7:00pm.
