Kingsmen rule over Leopards on home field
Campus Times
October 18, 1996
Continuing a winning streak is not exactly what the men's soccer team has
done the last few weeks, but head coach Mike Collins and the team agrees
that they are definitely improving with every game.
Although the team has yet to win with its third game of the season, the
play of the Leopards has proved to fans and other teams that they can compete,
an element that was evident in its 1-0 loss against Redlands last Saturday.
"We contained the Redlands team fairly well, a thing that we thought
would have been hard to do," said Collins.
In that loss to the Bulldogs, La Verne came out very physical and before
two minutes had expired on the clock freshman mid-fielder Armando Hernandez
was given a red card and was ejected from the game after pushing a Redlands
player in the back. Without Hernandez in the line-up the Leopards had to
continue the game with only 10 players.
"Playing with a player short and without Mondo we had a hard time covering
every angle, but we adjusted," said senior goalkeeper Tim Kyle.
The Redlands offense was strong in the first half and La Verne seemed to
be overpowered by the speed and ball control of forwards Dashan Hayhurst
and Sean Deshazo as they connected many times for shots on goal.
Although the Leopards had trouble with the Bulldog charge they managed to
keep the offense contained, with the help of Kyle, and went into the second
half scoreless.
In the second half, La Verne came out more aggressively than the first slowing
the Bulldogs' attack down. The game remained scoreless into the final two
minutes of the game and both teams began to fight harder to score as time
expired.
With 1:45 left in the game Redlands made one last charge as forward Robert
Rodriguez fired a shot from beyond the half line which bounced perfectly
to the foot of mid-fielder Greg Lackey. Lackey was off balanced, but still
managed to score on a slow roller past Kyle ending the game with Redlands
on top 1-0.
On Wednesday at La Verne's home field the Leopards took on another big challenge
from last years NCAA Division III Champion Cal Lutheran. The Leopards knew
they would have their hands full, but they were no where near prepared for
the 7-0 outcome as CLU rallied to shut out La Verne.
Cal Lutheran showed its dominance from the first kick, as it scored 25 seconds
into the game, a powerful shot by forward Brian Hinkle which sailed over
the right shoulder of Kyle.
"CLU is a great team, but I didn't think they would score as often
as they did, our defense definitely had their hands full," said Collins.
Hinkle scored two more times to grab the hat-trick and assisted mid-fielder
Matt Romeo on a powerful goal putting CLU up 5-0 going into the second half.
The La Verne defense tried to adjust in the second half pulling Kyle from
goal and replacing him with freshman Jonathan Castle, but the move was costly
as Cal Lutheran scored two more times to win the game 7-0.
The Leopards are currently 2-10, a place that coach Collins did not expect
to be in his first season.
La Verne will take on Pomona Pitzer tomorrow and Occidental next Wednesday
in hopes of capturing their third win of the season heading into the league
playoffs. The Leopards will play their last game of the season on Monday,
Oct. 30 at La Verne's home field.