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Los Angeles, CA — Occidental men's soccer played host to the University of Redlands Bulldogs on Saturday night in a rematch of the 2023 SCIAC Tournament Championship.Â
Ten minutes went by with both teams playing intense defense and allowing limited opportunities for scoring. A foul on Redlands would create an opportunity for Oxy, and Max Stanley gained possession of the ball just outside the box where he would perfectly place a pass for Alex Bosanac who put a shot into the back of the net for the Tigers.Â
The 2nd goal of the season as well as the 2nd goal of the First Year's collegiate career gave the Tigers an early 1-0 lead over the Bulldogs. Oxy would get their second chance at a score about halfway through the 1st half when Andrew Notter took a shot that aÂ
Christian Corcoran would step up to take the penalty kick and capitalize on the opportunity for the Tigers by putting the ball in the back of the net, extending the Tiger lead to 2-0. The goal was the 10th of the Senior Corcoran's career at Occidental.Â
The Bulldogs began to fight their way back near the end of the 1st half by getting a goal to cut the lead down to 2-1 at the 33:36 mark. The score would hold at 2-1 when both teams went into the locker rooms at halftime.Â
Redlands kept their momentum going coming out of the halftime break, putting pressure on the Tigers defense by making good passes and finding the open player. After having a shot on goal saved beautifully by goalkeeper Riley Nyhan, the Bulldogs scored the equalizer almost 17 minutes into the 2nd half on a nicely executed play.
As the game winded down with the score even at 2, Oxy had a solid look at the goal on a throw-in with 10 minutes left in the game as Kai Fidelholtz put a header on goal that was saved by the Bulldog keeper. Matthew Shea would also get off that would've had a chance to break the tie but a Redlands defender was able to block it before it made it to the goalie.Â
The match would conclude in a 2-2 tie after 90 minutes of play, bringing the Tigers' overall record to 5-1-2 and SCIAC record to 3-0-1. Oxy had 14 shots, compared to Redlands' 13, but the Bulldogs put 7 on goal compared to the Tigers 4. Riley Nyhan made 5 saves, including multiple impressive stops.
Oxy remains unbeaten in SCIAC play, with their next conference game on the road in Thousand Oaks against the California Lutheran Kingsmen on Wednesday, October 2nd at 7:00pm.
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