Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Soccer team put together their best game on the season Wednesday night at Memorial Stadium as they took out the Stags of Claremont-M-S 2-1 in double overtime snapping their three game losing skid.
The Purple & Gold move to 1-3, 1-0 SCIAC and are now 4-11 over the past seven years over CMS with the win last night snapping a seven game losing streak.
It was the game of the season as Whittier was forced to play a man-down for a majority of the second half and into overtime. But they still managed to keep the pressure on the Stags to pull off the upset win.
Claremont-M-S had the first look on goal in the first ten minutes of the game as Yusuke Kobayashi would bend a shot from outside the box top shelf but it would hit the post and ricochet in front of the goal before being cleared out. Whittier found the go-ahead goal at the 27:21 mark in the first half as Luis Espitia (Paramount, Calif.) would put in a cross that found the foot of Matteo Loi (Kirkland, WA) who put it away past a diving Daniel Cui.
This score would hold at the break as Whittier held the Stags to a mere three shots.
In the second, CMS came out and put together an offensive attack pouring on 11 shots. They had a look for the equalizer in the 58th minute as a shot by the Stags was put on frame. But defender Gonzalo Martinez Zorzi (Necochea, Argentina) would slide in far post and push the ball away from going in with his hands ultimately giving him a Red Card, giving CMS a PK and forcing Whittier to play a man-down for the rest of the game.
On the biggest play of the game, Poet keeper Nathan Armas (Montclair, Calif.) came up clutch on the ensuing PK as he denied Matthew Swift going to his low right, which kept the 1-0 lead intact for the Purple & Gold.
CMS continued to pressure over the next 20 minutes but couldn't land anything but found success with under ten minutes to play from Daniel Rohde who controlled a pass on top of the box before turning around and connecting past two defenders and Armas, which deadlocked the game sending it to extra time.
In overtime, Whittier was able to limit the CMS opportunities holding them without a shot, while adding two themselves. The game-winner coming from Ibrahim Abou Hashish (Cairo, Egypt) two and a half minutes into the second OT period who bent the golden goal top shelf past Cui giving Whittier their first win on the season.
Armas played big in goal for his first win finishing with seven saves. A combined 18 corner kicks occurred with CMS holding the advantage 11-7 along with shots at 14-9.
Whittier has the weekend off before returning to action next Wednesday, September 20 as they travel to take on Chapman University beginning at 4:00pm.
