Occidental College

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Los Angeles, CA — The Occidental men's soccer team played an afternoon non-conference game against the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs on Saturday at Patterson Field. 

Oxy would start strong in this game as Oury Diane had an early shot for the Tigers that the UCSC goalie would make a nice save on. Diane fired off two more shots in the early going for Oxy, one of which was blocked by a defender. 

Nearing the 24th minute of action, Oxy drew a foul outside the penalty box and was rewarded a free kick. Joey Schwartz stepped up to take the kick and placed a beautiful shot out of the reach of the goalie and into the back of the net to give Oxy a 1-0 lead. 

Oxy was playing strong defense to keep their lead and blocking multiple UCSC shots to prevent any of them from being on goal and needing to be saved. The Tiger offense was able to get a chance to extend the lead when Diego Cavalie would take a nice shot at the goal but it was saved by the UCSC goalie to keep the game at 1-0. Oxy would make a beautiful team save in the 40th minute to preserve the 1-0 lead, which would remain the score going into the half. 

In the 2nd half of the game, the Tigers were continuing their defensive play and limiting scoring opportunities until the Banana Slugs drew a foul inside the penalty box and were awarded a penalty kick. The UCSC player would score the goal on the penalty kick with 20 minutes remaining in the game to tie the game at 1-1. 

Less than 5 minutes laters UCSC drew another foul that led to another penalty kick on a play inside the penalty box and would capitalize on the opportunity to take the lead with the kick. Down 2-1 Oxy's Tyler Na-Nakornpanom was able to get off two shots that nearly tied the game, one of which was saved by the UCSC goalie to preserve their lead. 

Oxy's last attempt to even the score came on a header from Christian Corcoran that was just high of the goal and sailed out of bounds. The game would come to an end in a 2-1 score in favor of UCSC. 

This was only Oxy's second loss of the season, all of which have come in non-conference matchups. They will play their next game in a matchup with the CMS Stags on Wednesday, October 11th at home on Patterson Field.