LOS ANGELES — The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens stole Wednesday's Senior Night away from the Occidental College men's soccer team and its six seniors, scoring twice with under 15 minutes left in the contest to capture a 2-1 victory.

After a scoreless opening half, senior forward Marcus Brandford drew first blood for Oxy just 1 minute into the second half, recording his sixth goal (12 points) of the season.

"I thought the seniors were brave, and I'm happy that Marcus, a senior, got a goal," Occidental head coach Rod Lafaurie said. "And actually I want to say all our seniors got really close to scoring goals. So I'm proud of their efforts. I'm proud of them giving everything they had for the cause."  

Sophomore Connor Freeman, who lived around the goal all night with two shots off the crossbar and a loose-ball header that sailed just over the net for Oxy's best opportunity of the first half, drew iron on a low line drive that bounced right into the lap of fellow forward Grayson Burdon. Burdon quickly fired a centering pass to Brandford, who one-touched the score back-right post.

"It was a great experience," Brandford said of Senior Night. "I wanted to get a goal coming in here to my last game. I'd been on a little bit of a drought, so I was just trying to put some away. We had some chances early, and then I finally got a really nice opportunity. Grayson just passed me the ball, and I had a lot of time inside the box and just leaned over it and focused on putting it on frame, and it went in."  

Occidental got off to a physical start, as four different Tigers each picked up a yellow card in the first half, setting the tone for what would be an aggressive evening with six total cards handed out. 

Despite the Tigers' early defensive tenacity, it was the Sagehens who took advantage on the offensive end. Pomona-Pitzer's J.K. Gopakumar got a look at the front of Oxy goalie Tristan Cooper less than 1 minute into the contest, and the Sagehens went on to record seven shots — three on goal — in the game's first segment.

Occidental registered six total shots with one on goal in the first 45 minutes.

It was then Cooper's turn to play hero for the black and orange in the second half. In the 53rd minute, Gopakumar peppered three consecutive shots at the sophomore keeper, who saved each one in sprawling fashion before the Tiger defense was able to clear the ball out of the Occidental zone. Cooper finished with nine saves on the night.

However, Pomona-Pitzer freshman forward Voja Maric finally snuck one past him in the 77th minute on a shot from the top of the box that deflected off a Sagehen teammate and in off Cooper's outstretched hand. 

Maric struck again just four minutes later, feeding senior midfielder Harris Levin, who blasted a shot home past the right side of a diving Cooper. 

Occidental amassed a cluster of chances in the waning moments — and the teams combined for 28 total second-half shots — with attempts on goal from Freeman, Brandford and senior midfielder Alex Duvoisin, but none of three tries were enough to find the back of the net and draw the equalizer.

"It's just frustrating I guess," said Freeman, who tied Brandford with a team-high four shots in the game, in reference to one of his shots that nearly hit the mark. "I've gotten robbed twice this season now with goals. But you keep at it, and you get one eventually." 

The Tigers (3-15, 2-13 SCIAC) travel to Caltech on Saturday for their final game of the 2013 campaign.

"This year's been an anomaly," Lafaurie said. "This year is one of those things where a lot of things that could go wrong went wrong. And there's enough quality and there's enough talent that we'll learn from this and move on. But, it's a good program, it's a great program and we're still going to keep building something."

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