Westmont suffered a difficult men’s soccer loss on Saturday, falling 2-1 in overtime to San Diego Christian (9-4-1, 5-2-1), the second place team in the Golden State Athletic Conference.
The Warriors’ task was made more difficult when Will Bobo received a red card in the 30th minute. Despite playing down a man the rest of the game, the Warriors stepped up their defensive efforts.
“To play with ten men close to 70 minutes, you are not going to survive that period of time without spirit,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “I certainly thought that at the very least there was plenty of that from the guys. At the very least you can say that the guys defended very well and were very organized for that period of time.”
The game remained scoreless until the sixty-seventh minute when Marcos Lopez headed in a free kick from Jonathan Yeeles, giving Westmont a 1-0 advantage. Not until the eighty-third minute did the Hawks get the equalizer.
“It took a superb goal to level the game,” said Wolf.
The Hawk’s Justin Picou dribbled from the left sideline and then drilled the ball into the right side of the goal from twenty-five yards out.
In the tenth minute of overtime, the game came to an end when Westmont committed an own goal. An attempt to clear a ball that had been served into the box by a member of the Hawks, instead, found its way into the Warriors’ net.
The loss means that the Warriors (5-7-1, 2-5-1 GSAC) have fallen into seventh place in the GSAC standings. With two games left to go, the Warriors need to find way to make up ground on sixth place The Master’s (7-8-1, 3-4-1), which is three points (three points for a win, one for a loss) ahead of Westmont. Only the top six teams will advance to the GSAC Tournament.
Next week, the Warriors will complete the regular season with two road games. On Wednesday, Westmont will play at Hope International. Then on Saturday, the Warriors will conclude the regular season in Costa Mesa against Vanguard.
During halftime Westmont honored three Seniors in their final home game – Gustavo Hernandez, Matthew McNab and Isaac Thompkins.
