By Jacob Norling
April 3, 2021
 
(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) #17 Westmont (5-1-1, 4-0-1) utilized an exhibition against Cal Lutheran to get a look at younger players on the roster, and found promising results along the way with a 5-0 victory.
 
The plan for Westmont days ahead of time was to not care about the scoreboard so much, and rather focus on giving minutes to younger developing players on the Warrior roster. Those young and developing players did not play as if the scoreboard was irrelevant.
 
"I think there was progress today on things we didn't like as much from last week," said Westmont head coach Dave Wolf. "Today was better for a lot of reasons and we were pleased to see the progress."
 
In the fifteenth minute Owen Bates ran like the wind as usual, but this time the ball stayed with him. Bates has been notorious for being one of the fastest players on the Westmont roster, but has struggled to carry the ball for long runs. On this occasion however, Bates won possession 40 yards out from the Cal Lu goal on the far side of the field and no one could catch him.
 
Bates slowed for only a mere second to set up his shot and drilled it past the Kingsmen keeper for his second goal of the year.
 
In the 58th minute, after Westmont subbed in a few of their seniors, Tyler Young found a loose ball in the Kingsmen eighteen and poked it into the back of the net for his third goal of the season. Young repeated the feat in the 70th minute when Jona Romero crossed a ball from the far side that rolled right onto the right foot of Young and into the net.
 
"You want to see your goal scorers have the experience of finishing chances," said Wolf. "We know how capable he is in the box, and in order to win in the postseason he's going to have to deliver so hopefully he's moving in that direction."
 
Bates ensured that Young would not steal the bulk of the headlines in the 90th minute, when he generated two goals in the final 40 seconds. First he got a long ball from Wyatt Babineau and flew past a pair of defenders in the eighteen to bury his second goal of the day. Thirty seconds after the ball went back in play, Bates refused to let the clock run out and carried the ball into the six-yard box before chipping it to an oncoming Aldo Becerril who scored as the clock hit zero.
 
"Owen obviously has the pace to punish people," said Wolf. "But he's not always been clean enough to take advantage of those skills. Today he was calm, clean, simple, and then when those things come together his athleticism does the rest."
 
Måns Ingvarson got the day off, so Abraham Arteaga started for Westmont and made four saves in 70 shutout minutes. Isaac Swanson relieved Arteaga of his duties with under twenty minutes to go, and made one save to keep the shutout intact.

"Abraham did very well," said Wolf. "Like in the Bethesda game, he comes out ready to make saves early. We were a little less than organized out of the gate and what's impressive to me about Abraham is that he's ready the moment the game starts."
 
Westmont concludes the Golden State Athletic Conference regular season on Tuesday when they visit the Hawks down in San Diego. After that, Westmont will prepare for the GSAC championship game, which will take place in Surprise, Arizona against the Spirit on April 16.