By Rob Goodrow
September 14, 2019
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) The Westmont men's soccer team scored a goal in each half to win their first road game of the season Saturday night against Olivet Nazarene 2-0 in Bourbonnais, Ill. The #8 ranked Warriors had a few inquiries about themselves to answer on the topics of being newly nationally ranked, playing on the road, and having an opportunity to record the best start of any Warrior men's soccer team in program history.
 
As they have become accustomed, the Warriors struck early and efficiently, with a quick fifth minute score by Tyler Young on a Zach Godeck assist.
 
"It was a little bit of a misplay by their defense, and Tyler, he did what poachers do, he took advantage of it," said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. "He's been our best goal scorer and he was in the right place."
 
 Westmont controlled much of the tempo in the first half and Wolf noted that Samuel Tuscano seemed to have the Tigers' attention much of the first forty-five minutes.
 
"Even though he didn't score, I thought Sam really gave them trouble early – his pace, his quickness – he drew a bunch of fouls, put a couple of their players on yellow cards – he was just tough on them."
 
The second half turned into a defensive struggle for the Warriors and it took their impressive back line to survive a different Olivet Nazarene effort.
 
"ONU is a really good team, maybe the best we've seen this year," admitted Wolf. "In the second, we had to suffer for periods of time. There was some last ditch defending and some nervy moments around our box."
 
Coach Wolf complimented his upperclassmen on defense for their crucial role in staving off the home team's attack.
 
"We got a great performance out of both center backs – Tim Heiduk and Zach Godeck – they were outstanding. Those two guys were big-time college central defenders tonight," continued Wolf, "Nick Ruiz and Sean Nakaoka did a really good job on their guy (Thomas) Barbosa. He's a good player, he's clever, he's great on the dribble and Nick and Sean made it very tough on him."
 
"The spine of our defense was very strong tonight."
 
The Westmont attack in the second half was not quite as potent as in the first, but as it has through the first six games of the season, the offense found a way to put the winning distance between them and their opponent. In the 81st minute the scoring duo of Francisco "Panchito" Castro and Young once again found success, and it was Young's second strike of the game.
 
"That was a terrific goal," noted Wolf, "Pancho put the pass in the only place that Tyler could reach it but also into the perfect place that the goalkeeper could not.
 
"It was the result of one of our better sequences of moving the ball tonight and it was not just another goal but kind of the 'killer' score - it undercut their second half effort, took the wind out of their sails."
 
Earlier in the week Westmont found itself moving from the unranked to the ranked, at number eight in the country, and into a wholly different situation where suddenly they were the higher rated team, on the road, with a chance to make program history. Wolf felt his team handled all of it with poise.
 
"Our guys seemed to take the historical start as a motivation, they took pride in being able to accomplish something that hasn't been done before," said Wolf. "This is our third win over a ranked team but this is the first time doing it as a ranked team ourselves and we didn't play any differently than we have all season to this point.
 
"To open up on the road with this result is positive, it feels good."
 
The Warriors continue their road trip with a game at Cal Poly. Having already contested both UCLA and UCSB earlier in the season, Wolf admitted it is not just the final game before starting conference play on October 3.
 
"The pragmatic view for Thursday is that it's our last non-conference game," said Wolf. "But to be playing at Spanos Stadium, probably one of the top five college soccer venues in the country, we are honored to play this game. Coach Steve Sampson is an absolute legend – for our team to be on the field playing against a team he's coaching, it's a true honor."
 
The Westmont Warriors face off against the Cal Poly Mustangs on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7:00 p.m.