By Zach DeMarcus
August 14, 2018
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) #22 Westmont Men's Soccer (0-1) put together a solid first 30 minutes to their 2018 season, but defending the corner kick proved to be there downfall. Trinity Western's (B.C.) three goals, two from corner kicks, was too much for the Warriors to overcome in their season opener.
 
Westmont head coach Dave Wolf said, "I thought it was a strange game. I felt very good about the first 30 minutes and then we conceded two goals on three corners."
 
The senior vice captain, Jeremiah Anderson, kicked off the scoring for the Warriors in the 15th minute. Jose Vasquez slipped a ball to Anderson who was making a run behind the Spartans' back line. Anderson then hit it with his left past the keeper to the back right corner of the net.
 
Anderson said, "That's a run I like to make because the back line has trouble figuring me out as I come across and head to goal. It was cool to get the first goal, but we need to get more."
 
They did need more as the Spartans leveled the score in the 25th minutes. Leighton Johnson took a corner kick from the left side. His service was headed towards goal from Domenic Poletto where Lalo Delgado recorded his first save of the season. Delgado swatted the ball away, but Jacob Low picked up the loose ball and passed it back to Vito Poletto who deposited the ball in the upper right corner of the goal.
 
Trinity Western struck again in the 42nd minute as Johnson again served in a corner from the left side. This time finding the head of Caleb Johnson who promptly headed the ball past Delgado to give the Spartans the 2-1 advantage. They would take that lead into halftime.
 
"There is a frustration there because defending set pieces comes down to two thing – being organized and competing. I'll have to check the tapes, but at least one of those boxes didn't get checked – maybe both," commented Wolf.
 
Trinity Western extended their lead in the 56th minute as Leighton Johnson beat a defender and served a pass from the right side to Low who delivered the ball to the back of the net from seven yards out.
 
The Warriors would respond in the 62nd minute. The opportunity was created by some fancy footwork from Sean Nakaoka who beat a defender towards the right end line. He glanced up and spotted Lucky Puengrod making a run from the left side. Nakaoka flicked the ball beautifully to the head of Puengrod who saw it straight past the keeper to bring the Warriors within one.
 
That was as close as Westmont would come to Trinity Western with the final score leading to a 2-3 victory in favor of the Spartans.
 
Wolf added, "At some point we lost the simplicity of our game. I thought we played a little bit arrogantly. Sometimes when that's the way you're feeling you tend to try things that are a little outside of your boundaries. To me there was a little bit of that in the group. Once that happened we were in a dog fight.
 
"The other issue is that we don't have the legs to chase a game at this point. We need another three weeks of training before we can do that. It was going to be hard once we got behind."
 
There were some bright moments for the Warriors namely in the first half. In the 22nd minute newcomer Christian Webb beat the keeper and his shot was saved by a defender on the goal line.
 
"One definite take away from this match was that we had some chances to punish them early. They had some bad turnovers. We needed to be more ruthless early," thought Wolf.
 
Wolf added, "I thought the decision making of our back row, in terms of when to step and when to drop, was really good. I liked the midfield three of Isaiah (Bolton), Dash (Wulterin), and Lucky. There were a lot of things that I liked in terms of shape. I thought Mason Garell was really good today and I thought Sean and Zach (Godeck) were decent," finished Wolf
 
The Warriors will return to action this Saturday for the annual exhibition match against DI powerhouse UC Santa Barbara. Kick-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Harder Stadium.