(SAN DIEGO) A second-half brace from center back
Milan Diklic sparked PLNU Men's Soccer to a convincing 4-1 home win over visiting Chaminade on Thursday afternoon.
"Overall, it was a good performance with a lot of control throughout the game," Head Coach
Phil Wolf said. "We created a ton of chances and limited them for the most part."
Freshman midfielder
Niko Kaczmarczyk opened the scoring in 17th minute with his first Sea Lion goal.
Corey Lundeen slipped
Austin Lavell through on the left wing for Lavell to whip in a grounded cross to an onrushing Kaczmarczyk, who took a touch before finishing off the underside of the crossbar.
Despite controlling play and outshooting the Silverswords 11-1 in the first half, Point Loma was held to just that single goal in the opening 45 minutes, as the Sea Lions took a 1-0 lead into the break.
With the result still in the balance, Diklic's quickfire brace off corner kicks in the second half scored what proved to be the game-winner and a valuable insurance goal.
In the 55th minute, Diklic headed a direct corner from
Samuel Tuscano into the ground and past the goalkeeper for his first goal as a Sea Lion.
The French defender then added a second less than two minutes later, off another Tuscano corner. Tuscano found
Milo Libby at the back post to head the ball back across goal. Diklic's first header was saved by the goalie, but the ball popped straight back to Diklic to score another header that put PLNU ahead 3-0.
A Sea Lion defensive giveaway allowed Chaminade to pull one back in the 68th minute, only for a moment of magic from
Corey Lundeen a few minutes later to officially settle the result.
Lundeen collected a loose ball before skillfully splitting a pair of Silversword defenders and finding the back of the net from distance to round out the scoring.
"It was great to see Milan get a brace and for Niko to pick up the first goal of his career," Wolf said. "I'm also proud of Corey for getting his first goal in the run of play this season."
Point Loma (7-5-3 overall, 4-2-1 PacWest) outshot Chaminade 21-6 overall and controlled 63% of possession in the win.
PLNU moves up into a tie-for-third place in the PacWest with Concordia, five points behind leaders Dominican and Biola, so will need help to continue moving up the conference standings.
Point Loma has a game in hand on Biola, but would need the Eagles to drop points in one of their remaining two matches in order to at least match their point total.
PLNU has played the same number of games as Dominican, so would need the Penguins to either tie or lose in two of their final three games. However, the Sea Lions have a direct say in one of those with the Point Loma set to square off with Dominican on the final day of the regular season.
PLNU returns home on Saturday for Senior Day, with the Sea Lions hosting Hawaii Pacific at 2 p.m.
"We will need to put this one behind us very quickly, as we prepare for a very good HPU team who will have the benefit of an extra day's rest," Wolf said.
