Westmont Men’s Soccer suffered a 4-1 Golden State Athletic Conference loss to Fresno Pacific (7-5, 4-1 GSAC) on Wednesday at Thorrington Field. As a result, the Warriors fall to 6-3-3 overall and 1-3-1 in conference play.
“It was very reminiscent of the Biola game,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf, referring to the Warriors’ 5-0 loss to the Eagles just eight days ago, “down two-zero at the half, goal given up from a corner – which was exactly the way we conceded in the Biola game – and a goal towards the end of the half. It felt like that all over again. When they got it to four-nil, you thought, ‘It is Biola all over again.’ It very nearly was and in some ways I suppose it is because we were playing at home.”
Fresno Pacific first scored in the eleventh minute when Guilherme Machado converted a corner kick from Paul Islas. The Sunbirds scored again in the thirty-second minute when Shawn Grieco put the ball in the left corner of the net. Mihailo Jovanovic and Alexis Hernandez were credited with a double assist.
In the fifty-eighth minute, Islas made it a 3-0 game, scoring on a corner kick from Machado. The final Sunbird goal came in the seventy-second minute. Machado served the ball from the right side of the field to the left side of the goal where it found the feet of Islas. Islas eluded his defender and then passed back to Jonvanovic who put the ball away.
Westmont’s score came in the seventy-third minute. Nana Akyen passed the ball to Isaac Tompkins who headed it into the net.
“Isaac has a knack for getting around goal-scoring chances,” said Wolf. “I think part of that is instinct and part of it is shear athleticism and strength. It is not really pretty to watch. From a technical stand point, he has not been an easy guy for me to give a lot of minutes to. But on a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals and that lacks a little bit of athleticism, he obviously makes a big case for himself.”
Following Thompkins’ goal, the Warriors put the ball in the net on two more occasions, but both goals were disallowed due to offside calls.
“Ironically, it is only our third loss of the season,” said Wolf. “It feels like our hundredth loss. It is a real tough situation to be in, a real low spot.
“I am embarrassed – not by (the team), but for myself,” continued the coach. “I hurt for them, because I know it is hard for them as well. I don’t have a great sense on how to fix it. Even before losing a few games, we had already been in the mode of trying a lot of different things. We have only played the same lineup once in consecutive games.”
The Warriors play next on Saturday as part of a men’s and women’s doubleheader at Point Loma Nazarene. The men kick off at one o’clock and the women at 3:30.
