COSTA MESA, CA- The Soka University Lions' men's soccer team tied their road match 1-1 against the Vanguard University Lions on Saturday afternoon in Costa Mesa, CA.

Highlighting the match was Soka's goalkeeper, Eric Aparicio, who produced a stellar 90 minutes  between the sticks. Aparicio generated a pivotal save in the eighth minute after the referee awarded Vanguard a penalty kick. Vanguard's Lucah Flores stepped up to the spot and attempted to slot his shot into the right side of the goal, but Aparicio read the shot and dove to his left, making the save to keep the two sides at a stalemate.

In the 56^th minute of play, Soka's Luis Barraza was shown a red card and the Lions had to adjust their strategy to account for playing with ten players for the remainder of the second half. The two sides stayed level until the 64^th minute of play when Vanguard found the back of the net after a corner kick found the head of Zachary Miramontes.

Sixteen minutes later, Soka was awarded a penalty kick, and Nicholas Bello stepped up to the spot. Exuding confidence and poise, Bello placed his shot past Vanguard's keeper to net the equalizer.

With less than a minute left to play, Aparicio again came up clutch, making a vital save to thwart Vanguards' final attempt on frame, keeping the final score to 1-1 and bringing the Lions' record to 0-1-1.

"The team showed progress from the first match by playing with more balance on both sides of the ball today," Said Head Coach Shawn Beyer. "Our build-up play will need to improve, but the way the team managed playing a player down for most of the second half was admirable. They dug in, competed for the full 90 minutes, and got a player-of-the-match performance from Eric Aparicio as he saved a penalty kick and had a brilliant save in the last minute of the game. It felt more like a win as we were able to come back from a goal down and a player down to earn a draw. Full credit to the team for their efforts."

Next, the Lions will return home to host Hope International University on Thursday, August 24, 2023. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
 
 
Game Notes: The Lions were outshot 24-6… only six of Vanguard's shots were on goal compared to Soka putting four of their shots on frame… Soka's Eric Aparicio made five saves on the day… yellow cards were shown to Soka's Diego Barba and Vanguard's Edwin Gonzales.