Jonathan Yeeles[/caption]

After losing three starters to injury in Wednesday's game against Biola, Westmont Men's Soccer (6-3-1, 3-1-1) found it hard to kick start its offense today and fell to Hope International (8-2-1, 4-0) by a score of 2-0 in a Golden State Athletic Conference affair.

"We definitely were thin with Cody Howen, Tanner Wolf and Patrick Wynne all out of the line-up" acknowledged 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."

Complicating the thin lineup was playing in triple-digit temperatures on a turf field.

"We need the weather to cool down," said Wolf. "It has been a very warm 10 games this season. The conditions were really hard today."

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.

"We were pressing a little bit at that point and probably left ourselves open at the back," reflected Wolf. "We gave up the goal a little bit on the counter attack."

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."

The Warriors' next conference game will be on Saturday when they host Arizona Christian at noon.

[box score]