TORRANCE, CA- The Soka University Men's Soccer team fell the Mariners of Marymount California University 4-1 on Friday evening at El Camino College.

Soka's first-year defensive midfielder Chase Buchert tallied the Lions lone goal of the match in the 22^nd minute off of an assist from sophomore striker Gerardo De La Torre. De La Torre beat his defender on the dribble, and served in a driven cross towards Buchert who was crashing the goal. Buchert slotted his shot into the back post to give the Lions the early 1-0 lead.

The Mariners answered back seven minutes later, after Nissen William finished his shot into the right corner of Soka's goal past an outstretched Riley Grosso to level the score.

Marymount added three additional goals in the 41^st, 45^th, and 47^th minutes of the match to bring the final score to 4-1 despite the Lions' Jesus Cabrera, Hunter Stewart, and De La Torre creating multiple scoring opportunities.  

"It's always strange when the season comes to an end," said Head Coach Ian Eggleston. "Even though it was an outside chance, we were hoping to be back training tomorrow, and hoping for another result to go our way on Sunday to get us into the playoffs, but it wasn't to be. Marymount are a very good team, and were just a bit too much for us tonight. The guys worked extremely hard, we scored a great goal to take the lead early, but three goals in a few minutes on either side of half-time really put the game beyond our reach. We're so proud of this team and all that they have accomplished this year. We have to give a special thanks to our five seniors who had their last college game tonight. They have done so much for this program over the past four years, and we've been lucky to have them. We'll take some time in the next week to process the season, have our player meetings, and start preparing for the Spring season and beyond; while the guys get to focus solely on finishing strong is their classes for the Fall semester."

The Lions finish their 2019 season with an overall record of 9-8, and 5-5 in California Pacific Conference play.
 
 




 
NOTES:  This is the seventeenth meeting between the Lions and the Mariners… Soka is now 2-15 against Marymount California… Marymount outshot Soka 15-9.