Photo by samsphotoservices.com

Los Angeles, CA — Men's soccer took on the La Verne Leopards at home on Patterson Field on Saturday night. 

Oxy was putting pressure on the La Verne defense early as they were getting off shots quickly in this game. Oury Diane had the first shot of the game for Oxy but it was just wide of the goal. Andrew Notter followed quickly after with his own shot that was also just slightly wide of the post. 

After a corner kick by Joey Schwart, Notter got off a shot that needed to be saved by La Verne's keeper to keep Oxy off of the board. After 27 minutes of play and getting off multiple shots, Oxy's offensive pressure was too much for the Leopards to stop and the Tigers broke through with a score. 

Aiden Aley received assists from Andrew Notter and Oury Diane as he got by the defense and put the ball in the net with a nice kick to give Oxy the lead at 1-0. Almost exactly two minutes later the Tigers would strike again when Oury Diane added to his impressive goal total for the season with assists from Joey Schwartza and Tyler Na-Nakornpanom. 

Oxy now lead by two with fifteen minutes left in the 1st as La Verne looked to get on the board to get back in the game. The Leopards were searching for offense in the half and were only able to force Riley Nyhan to make 1 save in the 1st half. The game would enter halftime with Oxy up 2-0. 

The 2nd half would be played with Oxy being smart and maintaining their two goal lead by playing strong defense while also searching for the 3rd goal of the game. After some shots that didn't find the back of the net for Oxy, Tyler Na-Nakornpanom was able to break through the defense and score the 3rd goal of the game with assists from Sebastian Langer-Chan and Charlie Miller.

La Verne would try to start a comeback by scoring their first goal of the game with just over 5 minutes to play to make the score 3-1. Max Stanley had to make a defensive save shortly after this to keep La Verne at only one goal and Nyhan made a save himself to essentially seal the win for Oxy as there was only 2 minutes left when the save was made.

Oxy improves to 5-0-1 in the SCIAC with this win and remains in 1st place of the conference. They will look to get another win when they travel to Chapman to play the Panthers in a rematch of last year's SCIAC Championship on Wednesday October 4th.