The Silversword men’s soccer team this season is showing it can hang around with teams from around the conference, but Saturday’s loss against Point Loma University was anything but a moral loss. The Swords played hard and were defeated 2-0 at St. Louis field. The ‘Swords had several chances in the early part of the game with a penalty kick which was saved by Avrin Yakou of the Sea Lions.
The save electrified PLU and their fans because two minutes later the Sea Lions brought the ball down the field for a goal by Nico Tagaloa on a cross that was volleyed into the net for the goal. That was the only shot on goal in the first half for PLNU.
“It was a great way to go to these four schools and get results is really hard,” said Phil Wolf, head coach of PLNU. “We’ve had a hard year even though we have played really well so its been a tough year, we’re excited to go home and prove that we’re a good team.”
The second half saw a lot more chances for the ‘Swords to even up the score but every one was saved by Yakou.
In the game, Chaminade outshot Point Loma 25-9, with the PLU’s two shots on goal going in.
“We played really well today we had a lot of chances and hopefully next game we can win,” Silversword goalie Bernd Buescherhoff said.
With the win the Sea Lions improve to 2-7-2. The Swords fall to 3-8.
When the men were done with their game, it was the Lady Swords turn to add the third win of the season and the game was slow at the beginning with neither team doing much with the ball. Then finally, Michaela Maes of PLNU scored from 35 yards deep to give the Sea Lions a 1-0 advantage.
“This is one of the best teams in the conference right now,” head coach Michelle Richardson said. “I learned that the girls are much more capable then what they think. We can improve on winning first and second balls and we need to use the full width of the field.”
After the PLNU goal, the Swords’ mustered their only shot of the game which was not even close to going in.
The Sea Lions outshot the Swords 10-1 in the first half.
The second half proved to be a relaxed state of mind for both teams with the Swords being out shot again 9-0 with PLNU goalie Ariel Oriarte getting little action in the second half. It proved to be enough for PLNU to hold on to the victory and improve their record to 7-2 and 6-0 in PacWest conference play.
With the win, PLNU goes to 7-2 while the Lady Swords fall to 2-8.
The next games for the men and women against UH-Hilo have been postponed due to Tropical Storm Ana and will be made up on November 6.
