THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Cal Lutheran men's soccer team took on the Whittier Poets under the lights in Rolland Stadium on Wednesday for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) home opener. The Kingsmen captured their first conference victory by the score of 3-0.
The first conference match of the season for both teams proved to be a very physical matchup as both teams racked up an abundance of fouls during the game. Cal Lutheran recorded 16 fouls and Whittier recorded one more to finish at 17.
Senior Brandon Kearney got the scoring started for the Kingsmen shortly after kick off when he was sent through on goal and fired a left-footed shot off the inside of the right post to give the team a 1-0 advantage with the ultimate winning goal.
CLU doubled its lead in the 25th minute when Diego Ortega put the ball in the back of the net with a powerful shot from the right side of the box for his first goal of the season.
The Kingsmen quickly made the score 3-0 in the 37th minute when Kearney crossed the ball in front of goal to Ortega who was there to tap it in for his second goal of the contest.
Defender Charlie Villa-Lovos anchored the defense for the Violet and Gold with his pace on the back line as well as his tough tackling. The Kingsmen held the Poets to eight shots with only three on target to complete the clean sheet.
Sam Johnson and Alejandro Trujillo each finished with two shots for the Poets while Connor Tait-Mole, Ethan Fletcher, Matteo Loi and Parker McDonald each recorded a shot.
CLU tallied 10 shots with seven of them on target. Kearney recorded three shots on goal and Ortega recorded two. Max Sharpe and Joey Arnold contributed one shot on goal apiece. Eduardo Garcia was between the posts for the Kingsmen and made three saves to improve his record to 2-1 on the season with his first shutout of 2017.
Cal Lutheran (2-1, 1-0 SCIAC) will travel to Orange, Calif. on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 11:00 a.m. to take on Chapman.
Box Score: CLU 3, WC 0
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Release by Jeff Rebello (Sports Information Intern)