After two full halves, two overtimes and a whole lot of physical action on Saturday night, the final score of the Kingsmen’s soccer match with Claremont Mudd-Scripps remained 0 – 0.

Though they didn’t get the win, head coach Daniel Kuntz was very happy with his team’s performance.

“I just love our guys. We have a motto of ‘staying in the fight,’ and our guys truly lived it out tonight.  We had moments and lapses where we kept bringing the fight on to them, and that’s how we managed to keep them scoreless,” said Kuntz.

One player who stood out during the game was sophomore goalkeeper Jack Duncan, who was responsible for holding the shut out. Duncan finished with three huge saves, with his most impressive coming right at the start of the second half as he fully extended to save a shot from going into the right hand corner of the net.

“Jack is playing excellent. He has an incredible, competitive spirit that is contagious to be around.  Jack loves to train, hates to lose and wants to learn as much as he possibly can about goalkeeping,” said Kuntz. “When you have a kid like that, the possibilities are endless with what he can achieve.”

Duncan has only let in one goal this season so far and continues to put on impressive performances in the net. Along with Duncan, the rest of the California Lutheran University defense held its own as well.  Huge defensive plays during the game came from sophomore captain Alex Wardle as he was the last man back several times on CMS breakaways.  But, Wardle stood his ground every play and continuously demonstrated relentless defense.

The Kingsmen’s best opportunity to score occurred in the first half of overtime where they came out strong and pressed on the attack.  Junior forwards Matt Hubbard and Kyle Flemming both had their own chances in overtime, but could not take advantage of their opportunities. With four minutes left in the first half of overtime, junior forward Cameron Rude broke the tie. But, it was short lived as he was called offside.

According to Hubbard, their strategy going into the game was to keep a high rate of pressure on Claremont the entire time causing them to make a mistake.

“With the pressure we applied they couldn’t play their game the way they wanted and it frustrated them,” said Hubbard.

Ball possession throughout the match was equal. In a game where both teams were pressuring hard on the other, maintaining solid control of the ball proved to be difficult.  The offensive attack was led by Flemming, who set up several nice plays including a clean shot on goal, and senior midfielder Ivan Sanchez, who put up two shots on goal.

The Kingsmen now move to 1-0-1 in SCIAC and 3-1-1 overall.  They’ve had a solid start to the year and have high hopes for the season.  Their next home game is on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m., as the team will take on their rival, University of Redlands.

Evan Engel
Staff Writer
Published Sept. 18, 2013