By Alex Franco

Sports Editor
The CSUSM men’s soccer team took on fierce competitors, the La Sierra Golden Eagles, to what turned out to be a disappointing 2 – 1 defeat on Oct. 19 at CSUSM Mangrum Field.
La Sierra struck first with a goal 50 minutes into the game when the Golden Eagles’ Ramon Santiago converted on a free kick. The Cougars wouldn’t be down for long as they quickly responded with a goal of their own just 9 minutes later, with a header from Scott Rice off a cross from Alex Brunsell.
Tragedy struck the Cougars in the 65th minute, when Erik Mueller went down with injury and was carted off the field on a stretcher. The Cougars played with heightened intensity afterwards and produced more shots but failed to execute and score.
La Sierra took control of the game in the 70th minute when opponent Bryan Gutierrez broke away and went one on one with the CSUSM goalkeeper. With time winding down, the Cougars continued pressuring the defense and gave themselves one last final chance to score in the waning seconds but failed to land the ball in the back of the net.
“We played all right, not to our biggest potential. We came together in the second half and stepped up. We plan on stepping it up more next time,” Scott Rice said.
CSUSM dropped to 3 – 6 – 3 after the loss, and looks to the homecoming game at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27, as a chance to turn the season around before the A.I.I. conference tournament, which will be hosted at CSUSM.
Directly after the men’s game, the Lady Cougars fared slightly better in play vs the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs in a 1-1 tie.
CSUSM jumped out to an early advantage scoring early in the first half with a Natalya Erbel goal in minute 13. The Lady Cougars took the 1- 0 into halftime, but was short-lived. Four minutes into the second half, the Banana Slugs answered with a goal of their own to tie up the score at 1- 1.
At the end of regulation, the score was still tied, which meant an overtime period for both teams. Each team came close to ending the game with a winning goal, but after all was said and done the game ended in a 1-1 tie after two overtime periods.
The CSUSM women’s team improved to 8-3-3 with the tie, keeping their unbeaten streak alive. The Lady Cougars play Embry Riddle on Mangrum Field at noon on Saturday, Oct. 27.