A shorthanded Westmont men’s soccer team found it hard to kick start its offense today and fell at Hope International by a score of 2-0 in a Golden State Athletic Conference affair in Fullerton.
Westmont falls to 6-3-1, 3-1-1 in the GSAC. Hope is 8-2-1, 4-0.
“We definitely were thin with Cody Howen, Tanner Wolf and Patrick Wynne all out of the line-up,” said coach Dave Wolf. “We had to do some shifting and shaking. I thought we produced some pretty reasonable football during the course of the game but couldn’t quite produce enough in the final third of the field. We have three critical pieces in terms of final third activity and Cody and Tanner are two of the three.”
The game’s first score was the result of an own goal in the 61st minute.
“It was a ball that got slotted across the goal,” described Wolf. “Genaro Hurtado tried to defend it and unfortunately just got on the wrong side of it and poked it past (goalkeeper) Josh (Glover). You can’t fault him because he was trying to make a play. It is just the way that it fell.”
Ten minutes later, Raul Pinon crossed the ball from the right side to Martine Meza who deposited it into the net.
Despite the lost, Wolf was optimistic about his team and the rest of the season. The Warriors are currently in second place in the GSAC standings.
“At the midway point of league play we are 3-1-1. We have played three of our last four games on the road. All things considered, we are in solid position. I still think we have some things we can do. Hopefully, we can get a little bit of a breather here and regroup next week.”
