One minute is all junior forward Matt Hubbard needed to make a difference in Kingsmen soccer’s 1-0 win at home against Whittier College on Oct. 26. In the 57th minute, head coach Dan Kuntz decided to substitute Hubbard in to the game. He didn’t regret this because in the 58th minute, Hubbard put away the one and only goal of the game.
“He’s scored against these guys before,” Kuntz said. “We kept telling him to just to be ready for the moment because if that moment comes, you may only get one chance. Tonight he went in mentally prepared and composed, and the next thing you knew he received the ball and stuck it away.”
Kuntz’s decision to go with Hubbard paid off as the Kingsmen snapped a 4-game losing streak with Saturday night’s victory.
“I was just dialed in from the get-go because I honestly have a personal vendetta against this team,” Hubbard said. “I really just wanted to go out there, give it 110 percent, leave it all out on the field and get the win, and we did that tonight.”
Junior center midfielder Tyler Pascoe also showed a strong performance, as he was responsible for setting up the play that led to Hubbard’s game winner.
“I think we played very well,” Pascoe said. “It was a super physical game but we matched their physicality and started to get the ball on the ground and played our game. We eventually put the ball away on our chance.”
California Lutheran University’s defense played their part in the match too, holding off Whittier’s 20 shots from reaching the back of the net. Sophomore goalkeeper Jack Duncan recorded eight saves and now has eight shutouts on the season.
“What’s amazing to me about this team is their resilience, especially defensively,” Kuntz said. “We wanted to come in and get the ball on the ground in the first half. They like to play in the air and we said lets get it down and play it wide to spread it out so they couldn’t play the long ball. Our defense helped make that happen.”
The team stringed several nice one touch passes together throughout the game, keeping the Whittier defense on the run. This allowed the Kingsmen to keep pressing the ball out wide to the sidelines, eventually leading to the nice cross from outside of the box to Hubbard’s feet right before he scored.
As of Nov. 27, The Kingsmen are (7-5-2) in conference play and need to win their last two games to increase their playoff chances.
According to Kuntz, Redlands has been disqualified from postseason play even though they sit second in the standings. CLU looks to take one of the last four spots available for playoffs. It could come down to their last match on Nov. 2 as they take on La Verne, who is currently tied with them in the standings.
Evan Engel
Staff Writer
Published Oct. 30, 2013
