This week men’s soccer added two losses to bring their Golden State Athletic Conference record to 1-2. With these additions, the Eagles take sixth place in the overall standings.
The Eagles played a tough game against the Hope International University Royals on Sept. 27, losing 3-2 in overtime.
After falling behind by two goals within the first eight minutes of the game, the Eagles needed to put more pressure on the Royals to even out possession. Junior midfielder Joey O’Keefe scored for the Eagles thirty-six seconds into the second half, bringing the Eagles back into the game.
“We’re a team of heart. We can come back from goal deficits if we put our minds to it,” junior forward Stephen Tanquary said.
Tanquary scored his fifth goal of the season with two seconds left in the match, bringing the score to a tie at 2-2.
In overtime, a defensive error allowed the Royals to score with just under a minute remaining.
The Eagles sought to come back from the disappointing loss with a win at home against the Westmont College Warriors on Wednesday.
“We wanted to start better,” said Tanquary. “It’s been a theme so far for us — not coming out strong and waiting for the other team to take it to us before we start playing well, so we have to get out of that habit if we want to start winning games.”
The Warriors dominated the first half of the game, consistently getting to the ball first, putting up eight shots on goal and pressuring the Eagles’ defense. The Warriors scored the first goal of the game about twenty minutes into the half.
After the first 45 minutes, the Eagles had yet to score.
At the start of the second half, the Eagles picked up the intensity and put up three shots in the first three minutes.
Freshman defender Clayton Mohler says the team has a habit of playing harder when losing.
“It’s been kind of a theme for us that when we go down we start to pick it up,” said Mohler.
Just under six minutes into the second half, Tanquary scored the Eagles’ first goal of the match and his sixth of the season.
Once on the board, there was more aggression in the Eagles’ gameplay. In the second half alone the Eagles recorded 14 shots, more than doubling their shot total in the first half.
Although the Eagles outshot the Warriors 20-12 throughout the entirety of the match, the Warriors walked away the victor in a game that ended 2-1.
This marked Biola’s third loss at home in the past three years and the first home loss of the season. In the future, the Eagles plan to work on pressuring the opponent during all moments of the game.
“We need to pick up [our play] from the get-go and not wait to get scored on to make moves towards the attack,” Mohler said. “I hope that we learn from this and take advantage of the beginning of the game rather than waiting until the end of the game to take over.”
The Eagles’ next game is at home on Al Barbour Field on Oct. 4, where they will play against the William Jessup University Warriors for the first time, who rank 0-2-1 in conference.
