In the last two games since their loss to the Whittier College Poets on Sept. 5, the Eagles have gone 1-1 and now hold a season record of 4-2. They came off their first loss of the season with a 2-1 victory over the CSU San Marcos Cougars, but fell to the Dixie State Red Storm in their next game.

A Close Fight

Biola now holds fifth place in their GSAC division, trailing teams such as Westmont College, the Master’s College and Vanguard.

Although the Eagles have dropped two of their past three games, both losses were a close fight. In the matches against the Poets and Dixie State, the Eagles lost by only one goal and were shut out both times.

A Strong Defense

At first glance it is easy to assume that these losses resulted from a lack of defense from the Eagles. However in their past three games, the Eagles have kept their opponents from scoring no more than two goals and have only allowed four goals in 28 shots faced. Senior goalkeeper JT Addington had a total of nine saves in his last three matches, which has kept Biola only one goal behind their opponents.

Over the past three games Biola had 22 attempted shots, but only two of them went into the goal, both of which were in their match against the Cougars. Junior forward Leonardo Contreras was responsible for one of those goals and in the last three games has played aggressively. He had 13 attempted shots, seven shots on goal and made one of the goals against the Cougars. Contreras has scored three goals so far this season, one of the highest number of goals made on the team, second only to senior midfielder Joey O’Keefe, who has four.

Shooting Opportunities

Freshman defender Kousei Mattox scored the tiebreaking goal in the second period in the match against the Cougars, winning the game in the end for the Eagles. That goal would be Mattox’s second goal of the season in eight shots attempted by the Eagles.

Even though he has not yet scored a goal this season, senior midfielder John Hanscom has created many shooting opportunities during his recent game. Hanscom had 11 shots in the last three games out of his total 13 shot attempts for the season, not to mention two of them were on goal.

Growing Stronger

Despite the Eagles’ tough matches recently, the players kept their spirits up and have not let their losses affect their attitudes. After their most recent match against the Red Storm, sophomore defender Riley Waldeck saw how the team’s losses this so far season make themselves stronger players.

“We’re going to bring intensity to our training sessions, work on our finishing and not giving up even when the chances aren’t going in,” Waldeck said. 

With the rest of the players having this mindset, the Eagles gear up to face off against Menlo College on Sep. 22 at 1:00 pm.