(SAN MARCOS, Calif.) PLNU Men's Soccer concluded the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 3-1 win at Cal State San Marcos on Wednesday afternoon.
"We were not at our best today but some of that had to do with what CSUSM did," Head Coach
Phil Wolf said. "They are a good, well-drilled team and made things very difficult for us."
Point Loma broke the deadlock in just the 12th minute when
Juan Salazar's cross was turned into the net by a Cougars defender.
The hosts managed to equalize in the 35th minute with the game seemingly headed to halftime with the score level.
However,
Marlon Buck scored his first goal of the season just before the interval to restore PLNU's advantage.
Milo Libby's long ball was headed away only as far as
Felix Calero, who calmly chested the ball down at the top of the box and blasted a left-footed volley off the crossbar. The ball then ricocheted straight into the path of Buck, who thumped home the rebound to put PLNU back ahead.
Calero then doubled Point Loma's lead in the second half with his first goal as a Sea Lion, making it 3-1 in the 66th minute.
Christopher Burgos Lara split a pair of Cougars with a pass to
Gael Ruiz, who rounded his defender before whipping in a ball across the face of goal for Calero to tap in from close range.
That two-goal lead was more than enough for a PLNU defense that held CSUSM without a shot on goal the rest of the way.
"If you would have told me that we would be 4-3 after our first seven games, I would have taken it," Wolf said in reference to the team's challenging non-conference schedule. "But we need to move on quickly as we prepare for our first league game on Saturday against Concordia."
Point Loma (4-3 overall) gets two days of rest before opening up PacWest Conference play in Irvine on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against CUI.
