Westmont Men’s Soccer (3-0-3) concluded the 15th Heritage Club Classic by posting a 4-2 win over San Francisco State (0-3-2) on Monday afternoon at Thorrington Field. The win stretched Westmont’s unbeaten streak to 13 games (9-0-4).
“I think guys are starting to believe and make it difficult on the opponent,” said Morgan Cathey, Westmont’s head coach. “There is a belief and a maturity that is really strong. We didn’t play the strongest schedule this preseason and I think we are going to be tested a lot in conference – every game.
“I don’t think there is an easy conference opponent. Our guys having that meddle, that steel, that experience of being cultured in winning that is going to help us.
“We have only had one loss in almost a calendar year. That is special and we want to keep that going. We want our guys to feel the weight of that and understand that every time you play, when you win, the next game there is more pressure.
“We want our guys to be really engaged in that and love that. I think our experienced guys do value that, but they also know we are still far away from where we can be this season. That is the really nice part. We still have so many more gears I think we can go for this team.”
Tomorrow, the Warriors will take their unbeaten streak to Westwood to take on the Bruins of UCLA.
In today’s game against the Gators, Westmont sent 23 different men to the field, spreading out the load across the majority of the team.
“I thought San Francisco State caused us some real problems in moments,” said Cathey. “They have quality in certain positions, but they didn’t bring a lot of players (to Santa Barbara) and so as the game went on their lack of depth started to show. We were able to bring on fresh legs and that really helped us.
“Based on what we saw when San Francisco State played Vanguard, we saw an opportunity to play guys that could exploit their weaknesses. We also knew that if we gave them any time and space that their rotations were so good that they could confuse us.
“We didn’t put enough pressure on the ball in the build-up, so they were able to do something, especially in the first 20 minutes.”
It was in the 20th minute that Westmont broke the ice, scoring on a penalty kick by Connor Lynch. The PK was awarded as a result of a handball in the box. Barrett “Bear” Goodman sent a ball into the box from just inside the midfield stripe.
Lynch positioned himself inside the box as the Gators’ keeper was trying to make a play. The senior forward headed the ball down and back to Yordan Marinov at the top of the 18-yard box.
With the keeper trying to get to the ball, Marinov lofted it over his reach, sending it towards the goal. On its way to the back of the net, the Gator’s Marco Valdez used his arm to deflect the ball upward, causing it to rebound off the crossbar and back into play.
The center official immediately blew his whistle, signaled for a penalty kick and issued a yellow card to Valdez. Lynch sealed the deal with a shot to the back of the net.
Six minutes later, the Warriors made it a 2-0 game. Daniel Tuscano passed a corner kick along the ground to Cole Lomeli, who in turn sent it to Lynch above the box.
Lynch lofted the ball left of the goal. Near the end line, Landon Amaral passed the ball back to Goodman who headed it into an empty net.
In the final minute of the first half, San Francisco took a goal back, scoring on a penalty kick by Issay Bravo. The PK was awarded due to a foul in the box by Luis Cortes as he attempted to stop Bravo in a one-on-one situation with the keeper.
Westmont stretched its advantage to 3-1 in the 53rd minute, scoring on another corner kick. This time, John Ruetschle took the kick from the left corner, sending it in front of the goal.
Amaral raised up above the rest of the players assembled in front of the goal and beat the keeper to the ball, heading it into the netting.
Three minutes later, the Warriors added another goal to take a 4-1 lead. Lomeli took a free kick from 20 yards out and sent a right-footed serve toward the goal.
A Gator defender headed it out toward Ruetschle near the top of the box. Ruetschle settled the ball with his right foot about 15 yards out, took a step, then buried it in the back of the net.
The games’ final goal came in the 64th minute. Pablo Salazar sent a through ball into the box and Isaac Sandoval used his left foot to score.
“For the most part, I was pretty proud of the guys,” mentioned Cathey. “Definitely, mission accomplished to be able to rest some of our guys who will need to play tomorrow. We did not want them going into tomorrow’s game feeling exhausted.”
Westmont was able to give five players their first minutes of the season including freshman Diego Alvaro who made not only his collegiate debut, but also his first start.
“Diego Alvaro did really well,” said Cathey. “He was creative and put the ball into dangerous positions. I thought Michael Stull was awesome today. Corbin Kuhn showed some really good things in his first meaningful minutes.
Also getting their first countable minutes of play were Ruetschle, who tallied a goal and an assist, and Diego Garcia who tended the goal for the final 25 minutes, producing three saves without allowing a goal.
“It is a big battle (for back-up goalkeeper) between Diego and Mario Floriano and we will probably give one or both of them a little bit of time tomorrow as well. It was a good moment to bring in another goalkeeper and see what he can do in a meaningful game.”
Also playing in their first countable game of the season were junior defender Christian Jimenez and forward Isaiah Pichon.
Regarding tomorrow’s game at UCLA, Cathey said, “This is such a strong tradition-game for the program. There have been over 30 games (26 countable) played between Westmont and UCLA. To keep that tradition going and be competitive in it is really important. We have already shown that we can be competitive with a top Division I program in UC Santa Barbara and I hope tomorrow we can do the same.
“I hope that we can show well for ourselves and get the guys to continue to believe in what we are doing and how we are doing it. Whoever we are playing, we want to be our best. It is fun to go from San Francisco State to UCLA and see if we can keep improving.”
The game with the Bruins will be the last non-conference contest before Westmont begins PacWest play at Biola on Saturday, September 28.
