Box Score Photo by samsphotoservices.com
Los Angeles, CA — The Occidental Tigers held on for a 5-3 victory in Wednesday night's goal fest against Whittier College.
Oxy opened the scoring 20 minutes into the first half when forward Marcus Chmielewski headed in a goal thanks to a cross by defender Christian Corcoran. After being awarded a penalty kick from a hand ball inside the penalty box, Tigers midfielder Adrian Paredes converted the kick with a hard shot into the bottom left corner of the goal. Paredes would score again just three minutes into the second half by heading home a cross from defender Max Stanley to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead. Oxy's 4th goal of the night came when midfielder Nicolas Eble stole the ball off a defender and put his shot past the Poets' goalkeeper.
However, the Poets would deny the Tigers a clean sheet as they were awarded a penalty kick 82 minutes into the match which midfielder Nainoa Loschky converted. The Tigers responded quickly as Marcus Chmielewski finished a cross from forward Jake Foster for his second goal of the game. Occidental made a large volume of substitutions, one of which was a goalkeeper change, bringing in first year Isaiah Schaefer-Geiger. Schaefer-Geiger had two saves during his time in the game. The Poets would go on to score twice in the final five minutes of the match with goals from Andrew Elmore and Hayden Barnouw. The Oxy offense put 12 shots on goal while Whittier had seven shots on target for the night.
Next Game: The Tigers will host the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. as they look to extend their winning streak to four games.