Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – Head Coach Shea Harwell of the Whittier College men's soccer team saw six different players register a goal Saturday evening as the Poets cruised to the lopsided 9-2 victory at the Donald E. Graham Soccer Field over the Beavers of Caltech.
Whittier improves to 2-1-1, 1-0-1 SCIAC, while Caltech drops their second straight contest.
Ryan Wood (Wilmslow, England) had his breakout game of his career finishing with his first career hat trick, which included two goals in the first half both coming on assists from Dylan Fortin (San Diego, Calif.). The first coming in the 4th minute on a through ball and the second being a tap-in in the box from the left side in the 19th minute.
Caltech managed to add the equalizer early from Theodore Wilkening but that's as close as they would get as the Purple & Gold would run away with it in the second half.
Connor Tait-Mole (Livermore, Calif.) would connect for his first goal of the season to open up the second half, which was a shot from way outside the box that found the bottom left corner. Ricardo Pena (Bell Gardens, Calif.) would then get into the action seven minutes later heading in a cross from the left side from freshman Jacob Schaniel (San Diego, Calif.) before junior James Suri (Lake Forest, Calif.) would put the game out of reach with back to back strikes within a four minute window, both being assisted by Pena.
Fortin then found the back of the goal in the 79th minute tapping in a cross to the back post from Pena that moved the score to 7-1. Jack Banaszak wound up cutting the deficit to five for the Beavers with seven minutes to play but Moncef Bouzar (Salinas, Calif.) and Wood would add two more that sent the Poets to their Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) opening victory.
Whittier unleashed 28 shots with 15 being on goal, and had seven corner kicks. Wood finished with six shots with five being on goal, while Suri and Pena each added five. Jorge Rivas (Lake Forest, Calif.) picked up his second win of the season playing 45:00 minutes picking up one save against two shots.
Whittier returns to action this Wednesday, September 16 as they travel to Claremont, Calif. to take on Pomona-Pitzer beginning at 7:00pm.
