A pair of second half goals in a span of less than three minutes resulted in a 2-1 Golden State Athletic Conference victory by Westmont Men’s Soccer (9-5-2, 6-3-1GSAC) over San Diego Christian (11-7, 6-4).
As a result, Westmont has finished the GSAC regular season tied with The Master’s for third place and will enter the GSAC Tournament as the number three seed. Westmont will host sixth-seeded Hope International (8-10, 3-7) in the first round of the Tournament on Friday at 2:00 p.m.
Fans were still settling into their seats when San Diego Christian scored its goal. An errant Warrior pass was picked up by a Royal’s defender and forwarded to Pedro Henrique in the center of the field, Henrique dribbled directly up the field, firing from about 25 yards out. Henrique’s shot found the right side netting.
The Warriors’ first goal came in the 50th minute after a foul in the box by the Hawks. As Austin Lack dribbled toward the top of the 18 on the right side, Asher Booth was shoved from behind in the box just as the ball was being passed to him. Westmont was awarded a penalty kick.
Wilton Quintero, who owns the school record for penalty kicks in a season, converted his seventh PK in seven tries. Quintero is now just one penalty kick away from single-handedly tying Westmont’s record of eight made penalty kicks in a season by the entire team.
The second goal was the result of a set piece. A foul on the right side of the field set up the Warriors for a free kick. Wilton Quintero sent a ball from 30 yards out toward the front of the Hawk’s goal. Senior Muhammad Mehai headed the ball toward the goal but it was blocked by San Diego Christian’s goalkeeper. However, the rebound returned directly to Mehai who drove it into the side netting.
The goal was the second of Mehai’s career. He scored his first goal one week earlier in the Warriors’ 3-2 victory over William Jessup.
Westmont went 5-1-1 over their last seven games (all conference games) to secure their best conference record (6-3-1) since the 2002 campaign. Included in the run is a 1-0 win over Hope International last Tuesday. The Warriors also defeated the Royals on September 26 by a score of 2-1.
At halftime, Westmont honored seven seniors in their final regular season game on Thorrington Field – Jakob Colombo, Josh Glover, Blake Joyner, Davies Kabogoza, Mehai, Brandon Talsma and Tanner Wolf.
