Despite outshooting its opponent 22-9, Westmont Men’s Soccer suffered a 2-1 loss to Pomona-Pitzer in the season opener for both teams. The Warriors held a 12-1 corner kick advantage but could not translate the opportunities into goals.
“We got around the goal; it is safe to say that,” said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. “Beyond that, I’m not exactly sure how to evaluate what happened when we got around the goal. They obviously had a couple of big saves – that was a part of it. Then probably some of our inefficiencies were a part of it too.”
The Sagehens opened the scoring in the 16th minute when Voja Maric scored after receiving a pass from Drew Lind. Lind passed the ball ahead from just pass midfield. Maric dribbled 10 yard down the field and fired from 18 yards out.
The Warriors scored an equalizer in the 54th minute, when Tanner Wolf delivered a free kick into the goal from 42 yards out near the left touch line.
“Ironically, the one that does go in was the least likely of all the attempts on goal,” quipped Wolf. “I certainly give Tanner credit for hitting a ball in dangerous areas. Anytime you do that there are opportunities for players to get on the end of it or to cause some commotion. I think Pat Wynne was the challenge that offset the keeper. He did most of the work to shake up the box.”
Seconds later, Pomona-Pitzer recaptured its one-goal advantage. Maric fired out from 10 yards out. The ball struck his teammate Arash Mahboubi and ricocheted away from Westmont keeper Josh Glover.
The two things that stick in my mind (about the game) are the lack of cohesion in the team overall and the inability to convert in a lot of dangerous positions,” said Wolf. “We have played with the same group in the back four pretty much since day one. Today, it didn’t look like it. That was surprising and caught me off guard.
“Also, we broke down a little bit physically and that causes me to think about the way I scheduled the UCSB exhibition and the Point Loma Nazarene scrimmage,” noted Wolf. “Those were very tough games physically and we didn’t look recovered physically today. Three games inside of a week is a lot. I probably have to evaluate my own role in where we ended up today as well.
“We are going to give the team the next three days off,” declared Wolf. “They have worked very hard the last three weeks and we are going to give them a little time away and an opportunity for them to get off to a positive start in the classes on Monday. Hopefully we can come back with a little bit of freshness in us going into Santa Clarita.
On Friday, Westmont will take on Westminster (Utah) at The Master’s College in a 4:30 p.m. game. Then on Saturday, the Warriors will face Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) at 1:30 p.m.
