Los Angeles, CA – The Occidental men's soccer team hosted the University of Redlands for the 2023 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Men's Soccer Championship game tonight and walked away as the 2023 SCIAC Champions for the first time ever in program history!
After a 3-0 shutout win over fourth-seeded California Lutheran University on Wednesday night in the SCIAC semifinal match, the top-seeded Tigers eagerly awaited to see who their counterparts would be in the Championship match. Second-seeded Redlands tied the score against third-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the final minutes of their own match, ultimately leading to Redlands walking away with the 5-4 win in penalty kicks. Wednesday's semifinal match advanced Oxy's overall record to 12-3-3 and conference record to 8-1-3. For Redlands, their win over CMS improved their overall record to 12-2-3 and conference record to 8-2-2. Although historically Redlands has dominated when the two teams have met each other on the field, the Tigers have claimed two victories over the Bulldogs this season, 2-0 on the road and 2-1 at home.
The first half started off with relatively equal possession, which highlighted how much each team has trained for this moment. The University of Redlands' #20 Yusef Mayet was the first to get a shot off in the game, but it was blocked by #21 Evan Karp. Occidental's #11 Oury Diane responded in kind with a shot of his own, but the Redlands' goalkeeper #1 Seth Lawrence would stop it in his tracks. Lawrence proved to be a challenging foe for the Tiger offense as by the end of the match he tallied six saves.
Oxy super fans did not have to wait long for a Tiger goal as #15 Sebastian Romero was fed a perfect ball from a throw in by #10 Joey Schwartz. Romero was able to lob the backwards header over the Redlands goalkeeper and into the back of the Bulldog goal just after the first five minutes of the match. Romero's goal makes it the second fastest opening goal in SCIAC history, the first being by Mehron Abdi from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the semifinal match in 2013. Romero's goal bests former Tiger Daniel Lawson's goal in the 2015 semifinal match by one second.
The goal didn't discourage Redlands as they immediately found themselves on the Oxy half with #9 Phillip Kostenko maneuvered past the Tiger defense. Luckily, Romero was working both ends of the field and swiftly kicked the ball behind to clear it out of the danger zone.
Midway through the first half, Oxy fans held their breath when star goalkeeper #0 Ryley Nyhan took a hard hit after a corner and went down. After a few tense moments, Nyhan recovered and found his feet. Soon after #7 Kai Fiedelholtz made a quick pass up to #27 Diego Cavalie which had Oxy fans enthusiastically cheering with the new opportunity just outside of the box on the right side, but Cavalie was unable to find an opening with the defensive pressure from Redlands.
As the minutes passed, the Bulldogs were eager to equalize the score before halftime. #19 Anders Beckton had a breakaway after getting past the Tiger defense and all appeared lost until Schwartz came out of nowhere to make a save. A Bulldog throw-in resulted, but everyone could see the risk if Beckton was able to continue on towards a one-on-one faceoff with Nyhan in goal.
In the final three minutes of the first half, Oxy fired off five shots, three of which were defensive team saves and two of which were saved by keeper Lawrence. Shots came from Romero, Fiedelholtz, Cavalie, #9 Andrew Notter, and #29 Tyler Na-Nakornpanom. The Tigers were on a mission to prove that even though they were leading 1-0, they were still seeking to advance the score.
In minute two of the second half, #5 Marcus Chmielewski would open with the first shot, but goalie Lawrence stopped another attempt. After an Oxy throw in in Bulldog territory, #25 Max Stanley was on cleanup with a shot that nearly gave the Tigers' their next goal, but it hit the crossbar and was booted away by Redland's #31 Jacob Sattler.
With 32 minutes remaining in the second half, the Tigers had another close opportunity with a well timed three-pass sequence from Diane to #19 Lukas Howlett to Chmielewski who was making a break up the left side. Chmielewski would cross tight to the goal looking for #8 Aiden Aley, but Bulldogs' #5 Skylar Darwen would bicycle kick it to clear the offensive attack. A few minutes later, Redlands would draw a foul from Oxy. The Bulldogs were quick on their feet with a smart short-game strategy to pass the ball down the left side and cross it into the box. Redlands' Darwen would get a touch on the cross, but sent it just wide of the goal.
The Tigers would advance the score to 2-0 midway through the second half when Cavalie made an impressive side-volley goal off of a corner kick from Schwartz!
With less than 10 minutes remaining and the score 2-0, Redlands had another opportunity to reduce the deficit with a free kick just outside of the box. The Tigers made a four-person wall, with Schwartz added as the fifth on the ground for any attempts to go under the wall, but the Bulldogs would kick too high under the pressure. Fiedleholtz would have a second attempt to add to the Tiger score, but the rocket shot was deflected by a diving save by Lawrence. The corner kick that followed would lead to further close calls, but none would break through the Bulldog defense.
In the eighty fourth minute, Diane was able to get the ball in the right spot for Notter to crush it into the goal and sealed Oxy's fate. The third goal left no doubts in anyone's mind about who would be the champions of the night. Redlands continued to battle and had a shot with less than three minutes remaining, but unfortunately for the Bulldogs their time ran out.
After the game concluded and the team had their SCIAC celebration, it was announced that #15 Sebastian Romero was the Most Outstanding Player of the match!
As head coach Rod Lafaurie continues to echo after each win, "there's more work to be done."
Oxy punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament after their 3-0 shutout win over Redlands in tonight's match on Patterson Field. The Tigers will find out who their opponent will be in the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on Monday morning.
