Men's Soccer Falls 4-1 At Loyola Marymount
11/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Gonzaga University fought back from an early deficit and trailed 2-1 at halftime, but Loyola Marymount University scored two second-half goals to pull away to a 4-1 West Coast Conference men's soccer victory Sunday.
The Bulldogs (4-11-2, 2-7-1) concluded the road portion of the season Sunday and will return home to face Santa Clara University Friday at 1 p.m. and the University of San Francisco Sunday at noon at Gonzaga Soccer Field to bring an end to the 2011 season.
LMU (7-10-1, 5-4-1) got on the scoreboard first when the Bulldogs Josh Phillips tripped Artur Jozkowicz in the box and he beat starting goalkeeper Jeff Renslo on the penalty kick at 1:51 for his team-leading fifth goal of the season. Two minutes later the Lions Phil Silva almost made it 2-0 when he hit the crossbar.
Gonzaga tied the contest at 9:21 when Nathanael Pacheco played the ball out wide to Clark Phillips who found the upper top shelf past LMU starting keeper Jack McCormack for his team-leading fourth goal of the season. Clark leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 11 points.
The Lions took a 2-1 lead at 24:59 when David Ponce put his own rebound past Renslo. Alex Greenman sent a cross to Ponce and his initial shot was saved by Renslo but the rebound deflected right back to Ponce who made no mistake on the second shot.
Casey Ames nearly tied the match less than a minute later for the Zags when his shot hit the crossbar on a shot from outside the 18.
LMU held a 16-9 edge in shots in the first half and Renslo was called on for six saves to just two by McCormack.
Fernando Barba's goal from long range at 56:52 against Ryan Caballero, who relieved Renslo in goal to start the second half, pushed the LMU lead to 3-1 and the Lions made no doubt about the outcome when Dylan Seedman scored at 66:07.
The Lions finished with a 27-13 shots advantage. Caballero had four second-half saves while McCormack, who gave way to Billy Thompson in the nets with 2:58 to play, had two saves in the second half as he finished with four in the match.
LMU played the final 6:31 a man down after Jack McCracken was given a red card for a hard hit on the Zags Taylor Jackson.
The Bulldogs saw their WCC road losing streak reach 15 with the setback, the last road victory coming Oct. 18, 2009, in a 2-0 victory at the University of San Francisco.
