Photo: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. (Oct. 2, 2021) – The Whittier College men's soccer team showed great improvement from its last game and turned in another exciting game against No. 23 University of Redlands on Saturday evening at Memorial Stadium.

The Poets showed just how resilient they can be and that they are not a team to be counted in any situation. After the Bulldogs took a 1-0 lead into halftime, the Poets responded well, kept the ball in the visitors' end of the field, and ended up outshooting Redlands with seven shots on goal to six. Even when Redlands doubled its lead midway into the second half, the Poets refused to wilt and soon responded with a goal of their own. 

Senior outside back Daniel Hayes (Chicago, Ill. / Northfield Mount Hermon) fired a beautiful pass into the front of the net where junior forward Banks Telkamp (Seattle, Wash. / O'Dea) was waiting to put a touch on it. After Telkamp got a piece of it with his right foot, the ball wound up in the perfect spot for freshman forward Lawerence Dydell (Redmond, Wash. / Woodinville) to back door his way into an easy goal, his team-leading fourth of the season. Whittier continued to bring the heat over the game's final 23 minutes with Telkamp and sophomore Nainoa Loschky (Bellevue, Wash. / Interlake) continuously firing shots that threatened to knot the game at two goals apiece and force the potential overtime period. Defensively, the Poets also had their moments and did well to limit the traffic in front of junior goalkeeper Teddy Nickerson (Seattle, Wash. / O'Dea). In fact, Whittier held Redlands to just one shot on goal through the game's first 58 minutes. Nickerson, who played the full 90 minutes, finished with four saves.

Head Coach Shea Harwell and the Poets will try to get back to their winning ways in conference play when they travel to Occidental College (4-7, 2-4 SCIAC) on Wednesday, Oct. 6.

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