SportsSoccer

ULV staggers, loses 2-0 to CMS

The men’s soccer team lost its match against Claremont, 2-0. Edgar Manzo (No. 19) of La Verne drives the ball past Patrick Morrison (No. 8) of Claremont to attempt a shot for the Leopards. The Leopards fell to 4-6-3 overall and 4-4 in SCIAC competition. La Verne returns to action against Pomona-Pitzer at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Ben Hines Field. / photo by Reina Santa Cruz
The men’s soccer team lost its match against Claremont, 2-0. Edgar Manzo (No. 19) of La Verne drives the ball past Patrick Morrison (No. 8) of Claremont to attempt a shot for the Leopards. The Leopards fell to 4-6-3 overall and 4-4 in SCIAC competition. La Verne returns to action against Pomona-Pitzer at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Ben Hines Field. / photo by Reina Santa Cruz

Nicole Knight
Staff Writer

Halfway through the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season, the University of La Verne men’s soccer team comes out 3-4 after defeating Whittier College, 4-0, on Oct. 6 and losing to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 2-0, on Saturday.

Saturday at Ben Hines Field, the Leopards faced an intense battle with the CMS Stags, losing 2-0.

CMS junior midfielder Berislav Zborinek, assisted by sophomore forward Ian Norville, scored the first goal for the Stags in the 38th minute of the first half.

In the second half, the Stags increased their lead with a second goal scored by senior midfielder Henry Bustamante.

Both teams played an aggressive game of soccer with over 40 fouls, six yellow cards and two red cards called between the Stags and Leopards.

“Early on it was kind of rough. It was a battle, but we played with heart and everyone stepped it up when we had to. We scored our goals and we didn’t give up on defense,” Bustamante said.

The Leopards and Stags both kept fierce defense and offense throughout the entire game.

“We pretty much are at the same level as CMS, we just couldn’t finish out plays,” said ULV senior midfielder/forward Chet Jusakul. “We still dominated them the whole game, we didn’t back down and we kept going.”

“Even though we missed out on some opportunities, we can’t blame it on the referees, we played our own game and I think we played well overall,” said ULV sophomore midfielder Ruben Trujillo.

On Oct. 6 at Whittier College, the Leopards defeated the Poets in a 4-0 shutout game for the win.

Sophomore midfielder Gilad Hoffman placed the Leopards on the scoreboard in early the first half.

ULV scored two more times with goals from freshman midfielder Francisco Escobedo and junior midfielder Eduardo Rodriguez.

The Leopards topped off their lead in the second half with their fourth goal from Jusakul.

The Leopards completely dominated Whittier, out-shooting the Poets, 23-3.

After the game, the Leopards had improved to 4-4 in SCIAC competition.

ULV has lost to Pomona-Pitzer (1-0), University of Redlands (7-0), California Lutheran University (2-0) and CMS (2-0).

The Leopards have recorded victories against Cal Tech (4-0), Occidental College (1-0) and Whittier College (4-0).

ULV will now begin the second half of the SCIAC season, competing against the same teams for a second time.

The Leopards look forward to the second half. Their goal is to place in top four in SCIAC competition.

“We are focusing on goal production for the second half of the season, our defense and goalkeeper have kept us in games; defense has done their job, now it’s up to the strikers to take care of their job,” ULV head coach Crescencio Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez has great faith in the Leopards and looks toward the second half of their SCIAC games with confidence.

“My assessment from the beginning of the year was pretty accurate, the teams I felt we could beat, we’ve beaten and the teams I felt would be a one or two goal difference, it has been the case,” Gonzalez said. “At this point, we need to look forward to the second half of the conference and realize we are as good as the teams ahead of us.”

Nicole Knight can be reached at stareknight17@charter.net.

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