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Los Angeles, CA — The Occidental men's soccer team was in action for their SCIAC semi-final matchup with the California Lutheran University Kingsmen tonight. 

After securing the SCIAC regular season championship by finishing with a 8-1-3 record in the conference, the #1 seed Tigers were set to play the #4 seed Kingsmen in Jack Kemp Stadium on Patterson Field.

The Oxy faithful were in the stands from the start and ready to support their Tigers to their second straight appearance in the SCIAC championship. The Tigers fed off of the crowd's energy and came out of the locker room fired up and ready to play a great game. 

Aiden Aley was able to get a shot off early for the Tigers but it was just high above the crossbar. Ethan Carr had a shot of his own just 6 minutes into the game that a Cal Lu defender needed to make a defensive save on to prevent Oxy from scoring. In the 14th minute of the match, after a throw-in pass from Max Stanley, Vicente Navarro fired off a shot that hit the post and deflected back into play.

Shortly after, Oxy had another good look at the goal when Sebastian Romero was able to get off a shot on goal that forced the Cal Lu goalkeeper to come up with the save to keep the game tied at 0–0. Aley would get off another shot, this one being blocked by a Kingsmen defender in the 30th minute of the game. 

After having multiple good looks at the goal, the Tigers would break through and score the first goal of the semi-final matchup when Andrew Notter received a cross from Max Stanley and deposited it into the back of the net with a header as the Oxy superfans erupted into a frenzy when the goal went in. 

Notter added to his impressive goal count for the season with his 11th goal in one of the biggest games of the year for the Tigers. Oxy also limited the Kingsmen to one shot in the 1st half which came after Oxy's goal and was blocked by Notter who was making big plays on both sides of the ball. 

The Tigers 1st half defense was as impressive as it has been at any point in the season, including a very nice header from Max Stanley that cleared out a potential chance to score for the Kingsmen off of a free kick. 

Oxy would come out ready to play their style of soccer for 45 minutes and book their ticket to the SCIAC Championship for the second straight year. After a corner kick by Joey Schwartz 5 minutes into the 2nd half, Marcus Chmielewski got the Tigers on the board in the 2nd half and doubled Oxy's lead to 2-0.Chmielewski received assists from both Schwartz and Oury Diane on the play. 

Not even ten minutes later in the game a Cal Lu yellow card led to a free kick for Oxy. The free shot was placed beautifully by Oxy but Cal Lu's goalie made an impressive diving save to deflect the ball out of bounds. After a corner kick, Schwartz passed the ball to Aley who crossed it into the box where Sebastian Romero used a diving header to put the ball into the goal and give Oxy a 3-0 lead. 

The Oxy faithful were as loud as ever when the third Oxy goal of the game was scored and they continued to cheer on the Tigers until the game's end. With the clock running down and the Tigers up 3 goals, Oxy kept the defensive pressure on CLU and did not allow them many good looks at the goal. 

Cal Lu was only able to come close on a couple shot attempts, one of which came once the game was 3-0. The Kingsmen worked their way into the Oxy box with some nice passing, but eventually goalie Riley Nyhan was right there to scoop up the ball. The Tigers held Cal Lu to 9 shots for the entire game as they looked extremely impressive in 3-0 SCIAC semi-final win. 

With tonight's win the Tigers advance to the SCIAC Championship for the second time in as many years. Oxy will be taking on the #2 seed Redlands Bulldogs but unlike last year, Oxy will be hosting the championship matchup against in Jack Kemp Stadium so be sure to come out to support and cheer on your Tigers as they look to become SCIAC Tournament Champions!

The SCIAC Championship will be held on Saturday, November 4th at 7pm at Patterson Field.