The California Lutheran University men’s soccer team struggled to find their groove against the University of La Verne on Saturday, Oct. 13, and fell to the Leopards 1-0.

After getting off to a slow start, the Kingsmen fell behind quickly. The Leopards found the back of the net in the seventh minute after a long throw found its way past sophomore goalkeeper Antonio Welch.

Though the Kingsmen battled  hard against the Leopards, they had a tough time scoring.

“I don’t think we made the best out of our opportunities and when you go down against a good team like they were, then you go down early and it puts you in a situation where you’re coming from behind trying to find a goal just from the get go…I don’t think we were ready to come out and play,” Head Coach Miguel Ruiz said.

Cal Lutheran’s defense stayed strong and dominated against La Verne, with senior defender Alex Cortez recording a shot on goal. Welch tallied four saves for the game.

After much back and forth between Cal Lutheran and La Verne in the midfield, senior forward Jared Pischke found an opening. He dribbled past defenders and set up for a shot on goal, but failed to capitalize, leaving the Kingsmen scoreless heading into the second half.

“I thought that we had a good offense in the sense that we kind of dominated the game controlling the ball. It was just getting the final ball through to get those shots on goal,” junior forward Joey Arnold said. “We just didn’t have it and didn’t have a lot of movement off the ball.”

The Kingsmen recorded four shots on goal in the first half, while La Verne only recorded two.

In the second half, Welch recorded another save and Pischke took another shot on goal, but was unable to put the ball away again.

Cortez had a huge block for the Kingsmen, using his back to keep the Leopards from scoring again.

“I would say that we had decent defense, but we let one goal early and that’s been a problem all season,” Arnold said. “At the start of the game we kind of haven’t had the focus and intensity we need, so if we can just try to come into the game 100 percent, with that focus, then we should be in a better position next time.”

As time ran out, the Kingsmen continued to fight back. A late penalty kick was awarded to Cal Lutheran in the last minute of play, but they were still unable to get a ball past La Verne’s keeper.

“I think we worked as hard as we could today. We just couldn’t seem to finish the ball, but overall I thought we competed pretty well,” first-year defender Nick Bryant said. “This problem is that we always start off our games pretty sluggish.”

After the loss to La Verne, the Kingsmen will take on Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at home on Wednesday, Oct. 17 for their senior night.

“We’re going to go back to the drawing board and get ready for Claremont. They’re at the top of the board right now and we’ve got to get ready to play and hopefully get some points out of that game,” Ruiz said. “Definitely work a little bit better on the offensive third and creating more opportunities…that’s the plan moving forward.”

Alexa Barnes
Reporter