At 4 p.m. on Oct. 3, the Kingsmen of California Lutheran University suited up to compete against the Whittier College Poets.

The Kingsmen lost the competition 3-2 in the second round of sudden death overtime, but not without battling hard on the turf for 90 minutes.

Fans in the stands covered themselves with shade for the majority of the game as the sun pounded down on them. The temperature that afternoon did not drop below 80 degrees, which led to concern for the parents of the players in the stands.

Dicente Torres is the proud father of senior defender Zach Torres. Dicente Torres said he was nervous about the outcome of the game and was also worried about the health of the players.
“I’m a little nervous. The boys are tired and it’s been a hot day, so they’re all burned out,” Dicente Torres said.

While the heat that day troubled most of the fans, agreeably most of the frustration in the stands was toward all of the close calls that the Kingsmen had while trying to score at the Poet’s expense.

Trailing in the first half, Kingsmen senior midfielder Nick Baldi stepped up to score with 9:59 on the clock to tie up the score before halftime.

The Kingsmen goal could have been followed with a quick score in the final seconds of the first half but their efforts were unsuccessful.

The close calls continued in the second half of the competition.

In the second half the Kingsmen out shot the Poets 4-2 with some heart breaking attempts at scoring.

What was looking like a victory for Cal Lutheran, Whittier came back to score in the last three minutes of the game to force overtime.

In both over time periods the Kingsmen gained control and were pushing hard toward the Poet’s net. Though in a quick turn of events the Poets were able to regain control and score on the Kingsmen with just three minutes into the allotted ten-minute overtime.

Fans for Cal Lutheran were disappointed with the loss because they felt the Kingsmen had control of the game up until the last few seconds.

Junior at Cal Lutheran and fan of the Kingsmen soccer program, Joey Luau, expressed her disappointment Saturday night.

“It was kind of nerve racking toward the two ten-minute sudden deaths. I think the Kingsmen played a good game and it looked like they were going to win, that’s why it sucks so bad,” Luau said.

Baldi also commented on the close loss against Whittier.

“It was a tough loss especially in overtime. We worked hard, we worked hard the entire game. We thought we deserved it and it was heart breaking, but we can just start over from here. That’s all we can really do,” Baldi said.

Baldi also said that he and the Kinsgmen need to work on excelling on the field for an entire 90 minutes. The short lapses that the team had are what resulted in the Whittier goals.
In the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference,the Kingsmen are now 2-5-1 after their loss to Whittier and 2-7-2 in their overall season.

As a team the Kingsmen are looking to improve together and grow from the tough loss Saturday night.

“I don’t really have many goals as an individual, I just want our team to be positive and start winning. We deserve it, we have the players and we can do it,” Baldi said.
The Kingsmen play again on Oct. 7 at Occidental University at 7 p.m.

Heather Tomaszewski
Staff Writer
Published October 7th, 2015