By Jordan Wyatt October 5, 2013
 

(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) On Saturday at Thorrington Field Westmont Men's Soccer donned pristine black kits in front of 450 fans for their homecoming day clash with the Hawks of San Diego Christian. However, the outcome for the Warriors wasn't as pretty as their uniforms, as the extremely feisty match concluded in a 2-1 loss for the home team.

The Warriors dealt an early blow to the Hawks when midfielder Rick McCarthy scored his second goal in as many games just ten minutes in.

With his left foot, defender Brandon Talsma sent a snaking cross from the right side of the field into the penalty area where McCarthy headed it in from 10 yards out.

Over the next 30 minutes, the Warriors aggressively corralled the Hawk offense, stifling numerous cross attempts. Although the opposition was on an extensive offensive barrage, Westmont did not allow a shot on goal.

Nevertheless, SDCC broke through the Warrior embargo in the 41^st minute when Moises Parada scored on a header to even the match at one all.

The second half developed slowly. Multiple stops of play due to injury timeouts and fouls prolonged the 45 minutes of play to over an hour. Over the period, Westmont goalkeeper Josh Glover had four saves whereas the Westmont attack only mustered three shots.

With 15 seconds left to play in regulation, the Warriors finally got in position to steal the game.

A Nana Akyen free kick sailed into the box where Muhammed Mehai put his head to the ball towards an open goal. However, the shot was not strong enough and was covered by the Hawk's goalkeeper, sending the game into extra time.

In the first (and only) period of extra time, Westmont rode it's momentum from their last-second chance and shredded the offensive lull. Sean Siemens, Jonathan Yeeles, and Akyen all had close shot attempts that barely managed to stay out of goal.

Then, in the 98^th minute, misfortune struck. SDCC was awarded a penalty kick after a foul was called on a Warrior inside his own penalty area. The kick was converted by Pedro Henrique and the game came to a close.

Westmont assistant coach Johnny Whallon commented on the abrupt conclusion in stating, "It was a good, hard GSAC game; really what the league is known for. For us, there's really no point of making a big deal out of the referee's call – that's out of our control. It was a 50/50 call and he went with what he thought was right."

Whallon shed light on the game overall and gave his thoughts on his team's performance. "There were a lot of positives for us. But unfortunately, the way it ended was tough to stomach for the guys. We had our chances to win the game but just couldn't capitalize on them. Even though we controlled the game for most of the second half and overtime, (SDCC) got the goal. There were opportunities before that play that we could have taken advantage of, but that's just how soccer goes."

Whallon also relayed that the coaching staff and team recognize that was just one loss, not a symbol of things to come.

"There's a lot for us to keep building with from this result," exclaimed Whallon. "It's tough to stomach, and a real disappointment, but we know that we can play with every team in the GSAC. We'll have to have a short-term memory with this and get ready for our game on Tuesday against Hope (International)."

That game will be in Fullerton and will kickoff at 3:00 p.m.