Sophomore midfielder Sean Siemens helped the Warriors get off on the right foot in their season opener when he buried the ball in the back of the net in the game's twenty-first minute. However, a single goal proved to be insufficient as Westmont Men's Soccer lost to #8 Oklahoma Baptist (1-0) by a score of 2-1. The Warriors were playing in the opening round of the Azusa Pacific Cougar Classic.

Siemens entered the game in the twelfth minute when starting midfielder Ben Gordon was forced to leave the game after injuring his leg.

"Ben was running onto a ball and he went down in a heap without anyone on him," report Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. "My guess is that he is probably going to be out for a while. They will do a re-evaluation on him tomorrow."

Nine minutes later, Siemens headed the ball into the net off a corner kick from fellow sophomore Nana Akyen, who was credit with the assist.

"We had almost an identical look – same corner, same part of the field – five minutes earlier," said Wolf. "We ran the identical play a second time and this time he was able to get to it and head the ball in. Good delivery by Nana, good run by Sean. It was Sean's first college goal so a real nice moment for him."

The Warriors made the 1-0 lead hold up throughout the rest of the half.

"We moved the ball pretty well on a few occasions," said Wolf about the balance of the first frame. "We got a chance to do some things going forward that we didn't get a chance to do in the UCSB game. I thought we also defended pretty solidly. Our back four was very good and Matt was reading situations very well in the goal. He didn't have to make any saves in the first half of any real danger, but he did a nice job of managing the goal area.

The Warrior's solid play continued into the start of the second half.

"I thought the play was pretty well even," said Wolf. "I don't know that either team could claim an upper hand."

Twenty minutes into the second half, however, Victor Costa scored the first of his two goals for the Bison, tying the game on an unassisted goal from 20 yards out.

"The goal came out of nowhere," reported Wolf. "We turned a bad ball over in the midfield and (Costa) caught Matt out (of the goal). To be fair to Matt, it was a ball we should not have turned over. (Costa) put one in the top corner and there was nothing Matt could do."

With the score tied at one and 16:27 remaining in regulation, senior forward Doug Harrell was issued a second yellow card. The resulting ejection from the game left the Warriors down a man.

"That was a big disappointment," acknowledge Wolf. "Five minutes apart, Doug puts himself in a couple of bad situations. Now we are facing an uphill battle. It put us in a really bad spot. I would have expected more.

"We had to defend a lot more after the ejection," explained Wolf. "I would say that up until the red card, we were more in control of the game than our opponent. Once that happened, it was just a matter of whether we could hold on for a time or whether they were going to get another one. And they did."

With just under six minutes to play, Costa took advantage of the Bison's numerical advantaged and launched the ball to the far side of the net from eight yards out. Mario Maia was awarded an assist on the second goal.

"The disappointment is in letting one slip away against a ranked team," said Wolf. "Those are the kinds of games that can get you back into the picture as a program. We missed a big opportunity to do that today."

Westmont will return to Azusa on Saturday to take on Grand Canyon (Ariz.). The Antelopes, ranked number 11 in NCAA Division II, defeated #12 Azusa Pacific by a score of 2-1 in the late afternoon game of the Cougar Classic.