KYLE TREMBLEY
CONTRIBUTOR

Through the team’s tough 0-3 start, Cal State San Marcos men’s soccer has been unable to catch a break. That changed in the second half of Monday’s game at Westmont, when the Cougars were able to take advantage of two miscues by the home team and win the match 4-2.

CSUSM improves to 1-3 on the year with the much-needed victory. Westmont drops to 0-4.

Playing their final game at the Westmont Heritage Club Classic tournament, Coach Ron Pulvers’ Cougars came out looking to make a statement, and did so almost immediately. Just one minute into the game, a shot by Alex Rodriguez was stopped by the Westmont keeper, but Scott Rice was able to punch in the rebound for his first career CSUSM goal and the first goal of the season for the Cougars.

Rice was not content with one, however. In the 15th minute, All- Conference midfielder Jake Kaiser served in a dangerous ball from 30 yards out, connecting with Rice who headed it past the keeper.

Up 2-0 at the 15-minute mark, the Cougars were riding high – but were quickly reminded that nothing thus far this season has come easy. In the 22nd minute, a foul call on the edge of the box gave Westmont a penalty kick, which was converted to make it 2-1. Westmont would tie it in the 34th minute on a goal from Emmanuel Akyen, capitalizing on a stretch of play in which CSUSM was frankly a bit lucky to escape from without being behind.

But the second half would belong to the Cougars. Adjusting to the super-direct style of play that served Westmont so well late in the first half, Coach Pulvers directed his team to start pressuring the back line to shut down the long passes that had been hurting CSUSM. The adjustment worked brilliant, as not only did the Cougars tilt the run of play back in their favor, they pounced on two mistakes by Westmont’s inexperienced defense to score a pair of goals.

In the 61st minute, a lazy pass back to the keeper was picked off by a very alert Eric Lopez, who buried his first goal as a Cougar to put his side up 3-2.

Another first-time goal scorer, Sullivan Tobin, would ice the match in the 85th minute, intercepting a pass on the back line and striking a wonderful shot into the corner of the net from 25 yards out to put CSUSM up 4-2 and close the door on the team’s first win.

Kiki Castro picked up the win in net for CSUSM, making a couple key saves when the match was 2-2 to preserve the victory.

Men’s Soccer went on to win Point Loma 2-1 and Cal Tech 5-0. They now hold a record of 3-3. They kick off their regular season at home today vs Hope Int’l at 4 p.m.

Photo courtesy of CSUSM.edu