ALISO VIEJO, CA- The Soka University Lions dropped their match to Simpson University 1-0 on Friday evening at the Lions' Den Soccer Stadium.

The two sides remained scoreless for 79 minutes, with Soka creating multiple chances in both halves. Soka's Rudy Garcia, Mateus Seiki Rosa, Adalid Oregon, Kenneth Ugalde, Bryan Palpallatoc, and Noah Alexander each created dangerous scoring chances, with Soka outshooting Simpson 23-10.

The Red Hawks found the back of the net in the 79^th minute of play, giving them the go-ahead goal and then playing the remainder of the match with a park-the-bus tactical approach to stop the Lions' attack from converting the equalizer.

"This one hurts," said Head Coach Shawn Beyer. "We felt we had done enough to win, but in the game of soccer, if you don't convert your opportunities to goals you can lose games like this. It's over now, and we must move on. Our team will keep their heads up and continue to move forward. We will dust ourselves off and fully prepare for UC Merced on Sunday."

Next, the Lions will host the UC Merced Bobcats in their Senior Game home match on Sunday, October 15, 2023. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm. Senior Day celebrations and recognition will begin at 12:40 pm. 


NOTES: The Lions are now 7-5-1 overall and 6-3 in Cal Pac Conference play… Soka's Eric Aparicio made one save on the day… yellow cards were shown to Simpson's Gio De La Torre and Michel Hampe and Soka's Sam Dagg, Martin Mondala, and David Olivas.