Confidence doesn’t translate into a win for Biola

The Biola men’s soccer team was hopeful as the Eagles went into their game against Concordia University on Saturday, Oct. 1 but still came out with a 2-0 loss.

“I was feeling confident that we would be victorious, but before the game I had warned our guys concerning some things that we had to be prepared for if we were going to win,” head coach Bryan Kuderman said.

However, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics No. 14 Concordia scored two goals against the No.18 Eagles within the first 10 minutes of the game.

Concordia’s senior Mike Sweeney scored his first goal of the season and less than two minutes later junior William Prado scored his fifth of the season, which is good enough for second on the team.

A solid, late effort comes up short

The Eagles tried to recover and played a good game for the remainder of the time and created several opportunities to score in the second half, but were unable to guide the ball into the net. At the end of the game, Concordia came out on top leaving the field with a score of 2-0.

“They are really good team and our access to the game wasn’t good. We played a stronger second half but missed our chances to change [the] result,” freshman midfielder Sava Pantic said.

Senior forward Marco Ruvalcaba says the team was caught on the transition and didn’t recover quickly in the midfield.

Toscan’s injury adds to Biola’s woes

Not only did the Eagles have a tough loss but to add to their frustration, freshman defender Joao Toscan blew out his knee during the game. Toscan is the second starting defender injured on the team this season.

The team faced some obstacles that Kuderman said contributed to their loss. They were coming from behind to try to beat one of the top-14 teams, they were playing on the road, and they were playing during the day when, Kuderman says, they play best at night.

Kuderman also said that the team needed to “focus more on the emotional aspect of the game. We’re gonna have to do our absolute best at every moment if we expect to win,” Kuderman said.

Concordia improved to 7-1 and is ties with Azusa Pacific University for first in the Golden State Athletic Conference. Biola, now 5-2-2, failed to record a win for the third game in a row. They next play on Saturday, Oct. 8 at San Diego Christian College, then they return home against Fresno Pacific University on Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m.