Photo by samsphotoservices.com

Los Angeles, CA — The Occidental men's soccer team was in action on Wednesday afternoon against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens in a rematch of last year's SCIAC Semifinal. 

The Tigers got on the board early in this game when Kai Fiedelholtz made a perfect cross to Joey Schwartz who used a header to get the ball past the Sagehen goalkeeper to give Oxy a 1-0 lead. 

Oxy kept their foot on the gas and scored just about 5 minutes later when Oury Diane continued his strong start to the season with a beautiful goal to double the Tigers' lead and make it 2-0 Oxy before 10 minutes had gone by in the game. 

Oxy was not done before the 1st half would come to a close as Andrew Notter got in on the scoring action for his 6th goal of the season on an assist from Oury Diane. Oxy was up big with only 22 minutes gone by in the game. 

Pomona was determined to start a comeback however and was able to score a goal before the 25th minute to cut into the Oxy lead and make the score 3-1. That score would remain through the end of the 1st half. 

The Tigers came out in the 2nd half with the same pressure and were playing good defense and creating opportunities to score on offense. Oxy would capitalize on yet another scoring opportunity when Oury Diane would set up Andrew Notter once again to have Notter score his 7th goal of the season to push Oxy's lead back to 3.

Pomona-Pitzer responded less than 4 minutes later with a goal of their own however and the lead was cut back to 2 scores. The Sagehens kept the pressure on the Tigers by scoring yet again and pulling within 1 score of Oxy with 14 minutes to go in the contest. 

With the lead now only being 1, Oxy tightened up their defense and tried to maintain possession of the ball as often as possible. Looking to pad the lead, Diane and Notter would link up for a score for a third time in the game, this time with Notter finding Diane who finished off the possession with the Tigers' 5th goal of the game. 

Oxy would hold strong on defense and hold on to the 5-3 lead to win by that score. Oxy improves to 6-1 on the season and 3-0 in SCIAC play, good for 1st in the conference currently. 

Men's soccer will play their next game on Saturday, September 23rd at Redlands.