La Verne ends year with win at Caltech
Campus Times
November 13, 1998
by Enrique Gutiérrez
For the Campus Times
The University of La Verne men's soccer team finished its season with
a win, although it lost its last home game.
The Leopards' final match ended with a 3-1 victory at Caltech last Saturday.
Junior midfielder Jorge Macias was an important factor in the Leopards
performance at Caltech to finish the season with a 5-10 overall record and
3-7 in SCIAC play.
Macias was involved in all three goals. He opened the scoring in the
38th minute of the game when a pass by freshman defender Ryan Rodriguez
left Macias alone against Caltech keeper Brian Frazier. He then shot the
ball over Frazier and into the goal. In addition, he also had two assists.
"I had the opportunities, and I finished them off with a goal and
two assists," said Macias. "But most of all, it was for the team.
It was good to finish the season with a victory."
La Verne imposed its dominium early in the game and never lost it.
La Verne played an offensive game. The Leopards attempted 22 shots as
opposed to 11 for the Beavers and were caught offside nine times while Caltech
was not flagged at all.
The second goal of the game came in the 17th minute of the second half.
Macias sent a pass through to freshman forward Rudy Contreras, who finished
the play with a far-post shot.
Two minutes later, midfielder Chris Brooks scored the only goal for
Caltech by shooting a "bullet" off his right foot beating La Verne's
freshman goalkeeper Mike Rosen, who could do nothing to stop the ball.
Nevertheless, the Leopards were not done, and with seven minutes left
to play, scored their third goal to seal the game. Junior midfielder Ryan
Graham, who started the game as goalkeeper and had four saves in the first
half, scored in a similar play to the first goal.
For La Verne coach Mike Collins, finishing the season with a win was
important because "it carries over to next season."
But for senior defender Rudy Gutiérrez, winning his last soccer
game meant a lot more.
"It was the most important thing," he said. "If we would
have gone out with anything else other than a win, it would've been a heart
break. It would've been totally a loss to my whole career."
Although the Leopards won their last match of the season, they came
up short in their last home match against Chapman University last Thursday.
La Verne played hard and held Chapman to a 2-2 tie with 20 minutes left
to play. It was at that point when Chapman took control and scored twice
to end the game with a 4-2 win.
"We came in wanting to play hard. We got beaten playing hard, and
we gave that team [Chapman], who is ranked, a good match," said Gutiérrez.
Freshman forward Art Pico scored the first goal off a pass by sophomore
midfielder Mike Campopiano. The play came in the eighth minute of the game
when Campopiano served the ball from the right side of the field and Pico
anticipated Chapman defenders to put La Verne up, 1-0.
Chapman did not let the Leopards celebrate their partial advantage for
long. Six minutes after the Leopards scored, forward Mike Sterner scored
the first of his two goals to tie the game for the Panthers.
The Panthers had a 2-1 lead at halftime.
Early in the second half, sophomore midfielder Mike McClintock tied
the game at two for the Leopards. During the second half, La Verne increased
its physical game, committing 16 of its 28 fouls in that half.
Four La Verne players were issued yellow cards, including Campopiano,
who was ejected from the game with 15 minutes left.
"Their season is over, that's why they play a little more physical,"
said Chapman coach Eddie Carrillo.
"I did not expect them to be so physical as they were," said
Sterner, whose second goal came in the 71st minute of the contest with a
spectacular header to regain the lead for the Panthers, 3-2.
Forward Pat Ferry received the opportunity to close the score via a
header, off a pass by Sterner with 16 minutes left in the game.
"More goals would have been nice," Sterner said. "But
we got the win, so its all right.
"Last year, they [La Verne] weren't as good. This year they're
better. I'm surprise. I didn't expect them to be as good."
La Verne players agree that a good future is in store for the Leopards.
"Next season, we'll have more experience and we'll be better,"
said Rodriguez.
"They have the talent. All they need is discipline and just come
together as a unit and they'll be fine," said Gutiérrez, whose
soccer career is "over at ULV."
The Leopards finished just ahead of Caltech with a record of 3-7 in
SCIAC, one game in front of the Beavers, who went 2-8 in conference during
the 1998 campaign. Cal Lutheran won its fourth straight SCIAC title. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
finished second. Pomona-Pitzer, Redlands, Occidental and Whittier rounded
out the order of finish in SCIAC.
