MESA, AZ: The Lions fell to the Benedictine Mesa Redhawks 5-1 on Thursday evening at Bell Park Sports Complex.

The two sides remained scoreless until the 42nd minute of play when the Redhawks' Luis Olandez converted his first goal of the match to give Benedictine the 1-0 lead going into halftime. Olandez tallied his second goal in the 52nd minute, followed by the Redhawks netting their third goal at the 67-minute mark.

Soka's Kaulin Huss put the Lions on the scoreboard in the 76th minute. Huss's goal stemmed from a perfectly-drive bending service into the box by Bryan Palpallatoc from the right flank. Palpallatoc's cross found Huss, who finished his chance, bringing the score to 3-1 and tallying his second career goal for Soka University. 

One minute later, the Redhawks netted their fourth goal and then netted their fifth goal in the 89th minute bringing the final score to 5-1.

"We were unable to convert on the chances we created," said Head Coach Shawn Beyer. "Even though we got into the opponent's box, we couldn't break through until late in the second half. By then, the deficit was too much to overcome. The team gave everything until the end, and for that, we are proud. Now we look to Park Gilbert to finish our Arizona road trip on Saturday."

The Lions remain on the road and travel to face the Park Gilbert Buccaneers on Saturday, October 22, 2022. Kickoff is set for 1:30 p.m.


 
Game Notes: The Lions are now 3-9-3 overall and 3-6-1 in Cal Pac Conference play… Benedictine took 16 shots to Soka's seven… Soka's Kohtaro Goto took two shots in the game, while Bryan Palpallatoc, Mikey Venezia, Luis Barraza, Adalid Oregon, and Kaulin Huss each took one shot… Soka's Eric Aparicio made five saves… yellow cards were shown to Benedictine's Joao Alvarez and Aiden Eldred and Soka's Nicholas Bello.