By Ron Smith

Down two to one late in the game, Westmont's Matt Lariviere opened the flood gates and scored two goals in the span of 20 seconds to give Westmont (2-1) a three-to-two victory over the visiting Bobcats of UC Merced (1-3).

"The overriding impression is that the team found a way to win the game," said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. "Even though I don't think it was necessarily a great performance, and at one point a win didn't look very likely, I give them credit for staying with it."

The Warriors struck first when Austin Lack, playing in his first game after recovering from an injury, headed in a pass from Augie Andrade from eight yards out.

In the sixth minute, Andrade took a free kick from near the end line on the right hand side, about five yards from the touch line. Audrade's pass went parallel to the net and found the head of a leaping Lack on the far side.

"It has been a long time coming for Austin, in terms of working his way back to fitness," said Wolf. "We didn't have any idea of what he was going to be capable of today. He has been training full on for about a week, but that is not necessarily a very good indicator of what someone is going to be capable of on game day. I thought he looked very sharp for not having a lot of game minutes. That (first goal) was a big moment for us in the game. He did very well on the return."

Neither team would score the rest of the half, allowing Westmont to enjoy a 1-0 advantage. Shortly after the start of the second half, however, the Warriors missed a couple of opportunities to go up 2-0. In the 56th minute, Drew Alltop put the ball in the back of the net but was called offside.

In the 57th minute, Lariviere was taken down in the box and the Warriors were awarded a penalty kick. Andrade took the attempt, but was thwarted by a great save by Bobcat goalkeeper Bernardo Garcia.

Over the next several minutes, the game seemed to settle like a river which had passed over rapids and was now calm in deeper waters. Turbulence was ahead, however.

In the 67th minute, the calm turned to torrent when Merced's Derek Zamora headed in a pass from Xavier Juarez on the right side that glanced off a Warrior defender and past Westmont's rookie keeper Lalo Delgado. Seven minutes later. Merced's Cruz Trenado received a pass from Kevin Rodriguez and scored from 18 yards out, giving the Bobcats a 2-1 lead.

"At two-one down, you need someone to make a play," said Wolf.

Six minutes later, the Warriors would restore order to the choppy waters by countering the raging current and overwhelming the Bobcats with a deluge of their own. Lariviere's, first goal came with 10:29 remaining on the clock.

"I credit Austin with getting onto the ball and sliding it across the goal from the end line," said Wolf. "Obviously, Matty has to run hard to get into that box position and finish it off. That was a little bit against the run of play and how we were feeling emotionally at the time. That was the single critical moment in the game, even more so than the game winner."

The game winner would come just 20 seconds later after Yazi Hernandez delivered a pass over the top as Lariviere rushed past his defender. Lariviere received the pass and dribbled toward the goal. As Garcia came to meet him, Lariviere put the ball aloft and watched as it traversed over the keeper and then cascaded down into the goal.

"It is a very difficult goal to score," noted Wolf. "To lob that ball over the keeper is a really difficult skill to execute. Over the keeper, on goal, under the bar - it's not a very big window that you have to put that ball through. And he was running at full speed.

"For Yazi it's a big moment because he is also fighting his way back," said Wolf. "From time to time you get a glimpse of who he is and what he is capable of doing."

During the final ten minutes, the Warriors were able to contain the current within the riverbank and bring it to peaceful, and victorious end.

Westmont will not get much rest before the next phase of the journey. On Monday, the Warriors will welcome the Mariners of Marymount to Thorrington Field for a three o'clock game.