On a blustery October day at Thorrington Field, Westmont Men’s Soccer (2-5-1, 1-0-1 GSAC) matched up against the twenty-fourth ranked Mustangs of The Master’s College (7-1-2, 0-1-1). At the end of regulation and two overtime periods, neither team had put the ball in the back of the net, resulting in a 0-0 tie in the Golden State Athletic Conference match-up.
“It was a hard day to play – especially for our front players,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf of the windy conditions. “When you were playing with the wind, the ball got on top of you fast. When you were playing against the wind, the ball hung. It was a hard day to pass the ball.”
The stat sheet proved to be nearly as close as the final score. The Master’s made 15 shots and placed five on goal while Westmont took 13 shots, four of which were on target. The Master’s tallied three corner kick opportunities to Westmont’s two and the Mustangs committed 16 fouls compared to 15 for the Warriors.
“Since the McKendree game, we have been taking some steps (forward),” said Wolf. “I think today was a half-step forward. It was a clean sheet against a good opponent and it was a point in the standings in a conference that it is hard to get points in.”
As a result of today’s game, Westmont is in third place in the GSAC standings with a total of four points (three points for a win, one for a tie). Westmont is two points behind Fresno Pacific and the Warriors’ next opponent, #14 Concordia. With each conference team having played two games, the Warriors are the only team with a road win.
“I think, for us, today was a game of defensive organization,” said Wolf. “We did very well in that category. We had spent some time this week trying to expand the defensive sophistication of the team. We have been playing a lot of high pressure stuff but we recognized that going into this stretch of our schedule we can’t high press everybody because of the quality of the opponent. So, we wanted to be able to do some different things. The team did a good job defensively in terms of their organization and their shape. I think that was the best aspect of our game.
“I thought that our two center backs – Marcos (Lopez) and Gustavo (Hernandez) – were great. Sebastian (Kent) got ahold of their number 11 (Jorge Errano) and that was a tough match up. He’s a freshman who has played all of seven college games and we gave him the toughest assignment on the field. I also thought Doug Harrell did a superb job.
“Against Hope International, our front players won the game for us,” said Wolf, referring to last Saturday’s game. “Today, our defensive players kept us in the game. The challenge is if we can put the two pieces together.
Westmont will address that challenge at noon on Saturday when Concordia’s Eagles come to town.
