California Lutheran University Kingsmen soccer (6-8-5) suffered a 5-0 loss to end the regular season against the California Institute of Technology Beavers (8-7-3) at William Rolland Stadium on Saturday night.
Cal Lutheran was not able to muster any points during the game.
Head Coach Miguel Ruiz, in his seventh season at the helm, said he was not pleased with the effort put forth on Saturday night.
“You know, not the way we probably wanted to finish our season for sure, pretty poor game to be honest with you, before we go into playoffs. You know, we have to fix it, we start fresh, 0-0 going into the tournament and hopefully we’ll have a better attitude, come out wanting to win and get something done on Tuesday,” Ruiz said.
Senior forward Jackson Endsley said despite the loss and the poor performance of the Kingsmen, the team plans to turn it around and pick up the pace on Tuesday when they start playoff competition.
“I think overall it was not our best performance, came out pretty sluggish and fortunately the game didn’t really matter, we already clinched the tournament but it’s kind of a wake-up call that we can’t be going into next week playing like this. So overall, I mean not too many positives but now we just kind of look to Tuesday,” Endsley said.
Senior goalkeeper Gen Katashiba said the coaching staff had put together a good game plan, but in the end, the Kingsmen were unable to execute.
“He [Coach Ruiz] wanted a lot of energy and determination to win the game and then I think we just weren’t able to follow the game plan that coach wanted us to and came out flat, came out without much energy and that resulted in the result,” Katashiba said.
After allowing four goals in the first half, the Kingsmen played better in the second, allowing the Beavers only one more.
Ruiz said this highlight is something positive that can essentially assist in carrying the momentum from the second half into Tuesday’s playoff matchup.
“No, I don’t know that there’s many positives today, to be honest with you, you know what I mean, I mean the only thing I guess is that we only gave up one goal in the second half. I mean it’s probably the only good thing that can come out of this game today,” Ruiz said.
According to Endsley, being that the Kingsmen were down 4-0 at the half, this was a wake-up call.
“It was pretty embarrassing that we were down 4-0 at half, so it’s like, that was kind of a wake-up call within itself, and we just, yeah had to turn it around and just kind of put it on us, like, yeah, we’re at home we have to protect this house,” Endsley said. “So we have to come out with different energy and I think just play with pride, and the game plan didn’t change, it was just all kind of our own mentality.”
Katashiba said he would like to go out on a good note and leave it all out on the field, rather than end the season on the type of note that this game ended on.
“I mean yeah, I want to show out, you know make sure I end off on a good note, make sure I don’t have any regrets on the field. So I’m glad this one’s not our last home game, and we got one more chance to show redemption,” Katashiba said.
The Kingsmen will play at home against Chapman University in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Quarterfinals on Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.
