Stephanie Amaya
Staff Writer
The men’s soccer team lost to the Occidental Tigers, 3-2, on Saturday evening at Ortmayer Stadium.
In the opening of the match ceremony the Leopards had players escorted by a West Covina based soccer club called Progressive Soccer Ozzy. After the ceremony, the boys’ soccer club sat behind the right goal post with the athletic management staff. They enjoyed the game from the field while playing their own games during halftime.
The Leopards dominated the first half, which left the Tigers unsettled.
“We clearly had a really good start to the first half with a slow start to the second half,” head coach Trevor Persson said.
“We used to play with the wingbacks, but instead this time we tucked them inside and we were just covering their midfielders because they tend to play in a diamond formation,” junior center midfielder Alexander Bastidas said. “So, the wingback just essentially helped our midfielders, while having an extra man there stopping their game plan.”
The Leopards had 12 attempted shots with six shots on goal and converted two goals. Senior forward Adan Villarreal was the only scorer for the Leopards, after the first goal of the night within the 5th minute of the game, earning an assist from junior center midfielder Anthony Bastidas.
Villarreal scored again a few minutes later in the 10th minute, scoring the second goal for the Leopards with an assist by sophomore attacking midfielder Alexander Bastidas. Senior goalkeeper Hector Duenas-Peña led with four saves.
The Leopards were fired up, leading 2-0 at the half.
“We were on the counterattack, my brother (Alexander Bastidas) played me, and I had seen Adan running forward right away, and he made a good touch, took a shot and scored,” Anthony Bastidas said. “In tonight’s game we started playing like how we did against Caltech and against Whitter and those were tough losses, but we are getting better each day and practice together.”
Occidental kept the Leopards on their toes in the second half, the Tigers gained a momentum shift once emotions had gotten out of hand. A Leopards’ red card penalty gave the Tigers an opportunity in momentum to score their first goal of the night.
In the 56th minute, freshman defender Ayden Rieke-Wey scored Occidential’s first goal.
“We gave a really good half time talk. We moved some pieces around, we moved some guys in, and moved guys out,” Persson said. “I felt it’s a learning moment that we could be a little bit better, so you know, I’m pleased with how we played before the red card.”
Occidential’s junior forward Tyler Na-Nakornpanom scored the second goal for the Tigers with an assist from sophomore defender Charlie Miller in the 71st minute, to tie the match to 2-2.
The Leopards struggled to find their footing the rest of the match, giving up one more goal in the 81st minute of the match.
Occidental’s senior midfielder Andrew Notter scored the final goal with an assist from junior midfielder Aiden Aley to secure the win against the Leopards.
“Today’s game was very important, but it taught us that the game is not just one half, it’s two and it’s better for us to go through this now than later in the season,” graduate student defender Oscar Mendoza said. “Occidental is one of the best teams in the league, but we need to focus more on the second part, we just lost our head and it costed us.”
With the loss, the Leopards are now 2-4 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and 3-9 overall.
They return home at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 against the Chapman Panthers.
Stephanie Amaya can be reached at stephanie.amaya@laverne.edu.
Stephanie Amaya is a senior communications major with a concentration in public relations and a staff photographer for the Campus Times. She has previously served as a staff writer.
