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Los Angeles, CA — Oxy's men's soccer team headed into a big Wednesday night matchup with the Redlands Bulldogs looking to move into 1st place in the SCIAC with a win. 

Both teams came out ready to go as expected and Oxy had an early shot from Marcus Chmielewski who used a header to almost get the ball in the net for Oxy. Redlands responded with a shot of their own that hit the crossbar before it landed where a Redlands player could gather it and get a shot off for a goal to make the game 1-0 early on. 

Oxy responded by getting some quality possessions on offense. Joey Schwartz had two shot quickly after the Bulldogs' goal, one of which was saved by the goalie and the other was blocked by a defender. Ethan Carr also had a nice shot on goal that forced the Bulldog keeper to make a save. 

Oxy's goalie Riley Nyhan made some nice saves to make sure that the game remained at 1-0. As the 1st half drew to a close, Oxy was still putting a lot of pressure on the Bulldog defenders. Ethan Carr fired off back to back shots that almost tied the game but the goalie made a nice stop to preserve the lead. Only 10 seconds later Andrew Notter was able to break through with a goal for Oxy off of assists from Carr and Kai Fiedelholtz as the Oxy fans erupted in Jack Kemp Stadium. 

The game would go into halftime all tied up at 1 goal each with the 1st place on the line in the 2nd half. Oxy came out firing in the 2nd half with four shots right out of the gate, two from Schwartz and two from Oury Diane but each was just off from giving Oxy the lead. Both sides would go without a shot attempt for a while after that with both teams playing very intense defense.

Redlands eventually had a shot on goal that Nyhan made the save on to keep the game tied. Shortly after, in the 68th minute, Oxy had a corner kick that Joey Schwartz would step up to take and place a pass from Kai Fiedelholtz to secure and put into the back of the net with a beautiful shot to give Oxy the lead and all of the momentum in the game. 

Oxy's defense would come up big and prevent Redlands from getting another shot on goal after taking the lead and the Tigers would go on to get the huge 2-1 victory over the Bulldogs to move into first place in the SCIAC with a record of 7-1-3 in conference play. 

The Tigers will look to secure the #1 seed and become the regular season SCIAC champions in the last SCIAC game of the season when they travel to La Verne on Saturday, October 28th. Be sure to make it out to La Verne to support your Oxy Tigers!