THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. - The Cal Lutheran men's soccer team engaged in a hard fought, physical battle against an undefeated Occidental squad, but came up just short and fell 2-1 against the Tigers on Monday night at Rolland Stadium.
The first half saw a limited amount of action, as both defenses held their ground and possession remained fairly even. The Tigers held a narrow 6-4 lead on shots and both teams went into the break with the score knotted up at zero.
Zack Larson gave the Kingsmen their first good look at goal early on in the second half. The fleet-footed forward raced down the right side of the pitch and sent a cross into the box that Max Sharpe, who made his CLU debut, volleyed just high over the goal.
Just a short while later, in the 57th minute, Occidental (5-0-1, 2-0-1 SCIAC) was pressing on the offensive end and was able to convert to take a 1-0 lead. After CLU keeper Sean Williams made a quick save on a close range shot from Grayson Burdon, the ball squirted back out in the box and Zack Conrad ran through and kicked it into the goal.
The Violet and Gold would gather themselves and continue to push looking for the equalizer. In the 70th minute, Larson got another ball at midfield and danced around a defender to get open down the right side once again. He broke to the right and sent a cross to the box that Brandon Kearney met on the other side and shot into the goal to tie the game 1-1.
CLU had a few more opportunities to take the lead late in the game and had all the momentum on their side for a majority of the second half.
Despite this, the Tigers earned a free kick in the 86th minute and capitalized to put the game away. Conrad scored his second goal of the match, after lofting the ball over all players and into the goal from 30 yards out.
Oxy outshot the Kingsmen 20-12 overall and held an 8-0 advantage in corner kicks throughout the contest. Kearney scored his third goal of the season for CLU and tied for team-high honors along with Nick Baldi, Bryan Hulse, Pedro Zaccarelli and Sharpe with two shots in the game. Sean Williams tied a career-high with six saves.
Cal Lutheran (1-3-1, 1-2 SCIAC) continues SCIAC play this Saturday, Sept. 19 with a road match at Pomona-Pitzer at 4:00 p.m.
Box Score: OXY 2, CLU 1
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