Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College men's soccer team after a weekend off from competition came out fast Monday evening knocking off Cal Lutheran University 3-1 who was sitting in first place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings.
Coming into this evenings contest the Poets sat in a tie for second place with Claremont-M-S chasing the Kingsmen who were undefeated in SCIAC play and riding an eight game winning streak. But it all came to a close at the Donald E. Graham Soccer field with the Purple & Gold tallying two goals in the first half and one in the second en route to the two goal victory.
Both squads now share a lead of the top spot in the SCIAC Conference standings with 5-1-1 records.
Whittier got on the scoreboard first in the 14th minute. Pablo Gomez (Cardiff by the Sea) sent a corner kick into the box which was headed by Dylan Fortin (San Diego, Calif.) off the cross bar but Kingsmen keeper Jack Duncan wasn't able to turn around quick enough to make the save having the ball bounce off of him and into the goal for the first score of the contest.
But Whittier wasn't done there as they continued keeping the ball in the Cal Lutheran zone for the rest of the half tallying their second goal of the game in the 41st minute from James Suri (Lake Forest, Calif.) who was fed a through ball from Alex Mitchell (Bakersfield, Calif.) which he was able to square around on and send past Duncan helping Whittier go into the half up 2-0.
Out of the half the Poets struck first two minutes in from Devin Guthrie (Huntington Beach, Calif.) who tacked on the third goal of the game after he was sent a ball in the box from Lucas Depinna (Portland, OR). This goal marked the most goals Cal Lutheran has given up this season in a single game dating back to August 30 when they lost 2-0 to Pacific Lutheran.
The only offensive output from CLU was from Salvador Orozco in the 76th minute when he managed to squeak one past Poet keeper Jorge Rivas (Lake Forest, Calif.). The Kingsmen had an opportunity to pull within one with under ten minutes to play when they drew a penalty kick but Alex Wardle was denied by Rivas making a diving save to his left that helped preserve the 3-1 victory.
Depinna paced the offense taking four shots with two being on goal. Guthrie finished the game with three shots with two being on goal. Rivas between the posts picked up his sixth win of the season playing all 90 minutes picking up five saves.
Whittier takes part in their final game of the first round of SCIAC competition this Saturday, October 5 when they host La Verne at 7:00pm.
