MERCED, CA- The Soka University Lions fell to the UC Merced Bobcats 2-1 on Saturday afternoon in Merced, CA.

UC Merced came out of the starting gates quickly, scoring their first goal in one minute and three seconds and their second goal within the last three minutes of the first half.

The Lions started the second half strong, tallying their lone goal in the 49^th minute of play. The goal evolved from Adalid Oregon's dynamic run with the ball through the Bobcats' defense. Oregon dropped his pass back to Bryan Palpallatoc, who threaded his pass to Ivan Acosta at the corner of the 18-yard box. Acosta then slipped his pass square to Jesus Cabrera, who deceptively freed himself from his defender, took the half-chance, and bent his shot into the back post to put his side on the scoreboard.

The Lions were unable to find the back of the net again, thus dropping the match, and bringing their overall record to 3-6-3 and 3-3-1 in Cal Pac Conference play.

"Once again, we conceded early and then had the uphill battle," said Head Coach Shawn Beyer.  "Though we played some good soccer against the opponents, we didn't create enough chances. Then with the red card, it became even more challenging. But credit the players for not giving up. Being down a player and down by two goals at half-time, we committed to fighting back and did so with a nice goal from Jesus. The team fought to the end, but it wasn't enough. We need to start the game better on Thursday to get a result against Westcliff."

The Lions will return home on Thursday, October 13, 2022, to host Westcliff University. Kickoff is set for 5:30 p.m.


 
Game Notes: UC Merced outshot the Lions 16-3… Soka's Eric Aparicio made eight saves on the day… all three goals from today's match were scored in either the first five minutes or the last five minutes of a half… yellow cards were shown to Soka's Noah Alexander and UC Merced's Oliver Zamora… red cards were given to Soka's Chase Buchert and the Bobcats' Kevin Capetillo.