ALISO VIEJO, CA- The Soka University Lions (6-4, 2-1) dropped their California Pacific Conference match against the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Eagles 1-0 on Thursday night at the Lion's Den Soccer Stadium.

The first-half provided end to end action, as both teams created multiple scoring opportunities. Soka's Gerardo De La Torre produced a solid chance in the 39^th minute, hitting his shot high towards the corner of the goal, but the Eagles' goalkeeper Jake Hutto came up with the save. Embry-Riddle's chance in the 22^nd minute was foiled by Soka's goalkeeper Maxwel Barainca, who made the sliding save to keep the score 0-0.

With three seconds left of the clock, and after creating space, and freeing himself from his defender, Lions' striker Yauri De Groot found himself with the ball at his feet in the right corner of the attacking-third. As he began to cut the ball back from his right to his left via Cruyff turn, Embry-Riddle's defender challenged for the ball. The late tackle resulted in a foul, a yellow card, and a delay of game, as De Groot fell to the ground grabbing his ankle in pain; ultimately requiring medical assistance from local EMT services, and ending the first half of play.

Ten minutes into the second half, Embry-Riddle's Jacob Baker netted the game-winning goal for the Eagles. The goal developed after Garret Neiss served a deep ball from the flank to Daniel Nunez's chest. Nunez redirected his chest-pass to Baker, who finished his shot low and into the net.

The Lions continued to press, and hunt for the equalizer, with dangerous attempts from De La Torre, Harrison Mirolla, and Glen McKay. Soka's best chance came from Jann Christian Sitchon in the 80^th minute, when he blasted his shot first time through a sea of players, forcing Embry-Riddle's Hutto to make the diving, outstretched save.    
Despite the Lions' push to level the score, the Eagles were able to hold on to their lead, giving Soka their first Cal Pac Conference loss of the season.

"First and foremost, our thoughts are with Yauri tonight. He's broken his ankle in two places, and will have to undergo surgery sometime very soon," said Head Coach Ian Eggleston. "I thought it was a great game of college soccer tonight, with a lot of back and forth from both teams. When Yauri went down in the first-half it was very clear something was extremely wrong. It's a terrible injury, and one that was difficult for his teammates to attempt to re-focus and get back to playing from. To our guys' credit, I thought they were superb in the second half, and were extremely unlucky not to get at least one goal. We're all disappointed to lose the game, and we're really hurting for Yauri right now, as he was having such a great season, and loves the game so much. Our guys will be playing for him the rest of the season, and we're looking to bounce back on Saturday against a strong Benedictine- Mesa team."

The Soka Lions return to action on Saturday, Sept.29^th, in their LGBT SportSafe Pride Night match against the Benedictine University-Mesa Redhawks. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. All fans in attendance will receive a free Soka Athletics Pride wrist band.
 
 





 
Notes: Tonight marks the 14^th time the Lions have faced the Eagles… Soka is now 0-13-1 against Embry-Riddle…The Eagles outshot the Lions 17-12… Soka's Barainca made six saves on the day… yellow cards were shown to Embry-Riddle's Sebastian Aguas and Jarred Peterson.