Thrice As Nice

Saturday, September 12

Riverside, Calif.

4:30 PM

California Baptist University

1-3-1

UC San Diego

1-2-2

UC San Diego

California Baptist

Photo by: Conner Schuh

9/12/2015 8:42:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Sammi Sheppard, Director of Sports Information

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Coming off Thursday's tough overtime loss, California Baptist University came out fired up Saturday afternoon, defeating UC San Diego 3-0 for its first win of the season.

The victory moves the Lancers to 1-3-1 on the season, finally getting the result they've been looking for. The Tritons fall to 1-2-2 overall.

"It feels really good to get the first win," said head coach Gregg Schroeder. "We knew it was kind of a monkey-off-your-back matter of time. I told the guys they can't be like Thomas in the Bible, waiting to see it to believe it."

It took less than five minutes into the contest for CBU to strike first. Wyatt Deane sent a long ball deep into Triton territory, but UCSD tried to get it out of danger. Julian Ekeze fought to gain possession and laid the ball back to an open Gio Rodriguez at the top of the box. The junior midfielder fired off the one-touch shot, sending it soaring past the Triton goalkeeper.

"We've tried to work with combining from our strikers to our attacking midfielders," said Schroeder. "Gio can score. He puts himself in the positions to do so, like he did today. Julian did a good job of fighting for it and helping that. It was a great ball forward from Wyatt, too."

Play went back and forth before the Lancers struck again in the 26th minute. As the Tritons tried to clear a ball, Jeromy Gurule came blazing in and blocked the goalkeeper's clearance. The ball bounced the right way for CBU, allowing Gurule to easily tuck it home to put his team in front by two.

"My heart goes out to UCSD because they are a good team," said Schroeder. "When that stuff happens in a game, you kind of just have to take it. Those are the bounces you hate, where they don't go your way. Jeromy's hustle really forced the confusion and misplay so credit him for working for it and slotting it in."

"The past couple of games I've had my chances but hit the crossbar a few times and it hasn't gone my way so it feels good to actually find the back of the net this time," added Gurule.

Energized from the first half, but not feeling content yet, CBU was hungry for more. Junior Guerra gave the Lancers a chance in the 50th minute, but UCSD's goalkeeper came up with the save to keep his team within reach.

The Tritons got a chance to put themselves back in the game in the 56th minute as they drew a penalty kick. Noah Oyler, who has been solid in goal all season, came up big with the stop, but gave up a rebound. As a scramble in the box commensed, Oyler snuffed up the ball from point-blank range to keep UCSD off the board.

"Even if you guess right on a PK, you still have to save it," said Schroeder. "I thought he did great on the initial save and then got himself in a good position to take the follow-up. That could have been a game-changer and Noah prevented that from happening. I couldn't be happier for him. He's played well enough to keep goals out of the net, but we as a group have struggled to help him with that."

Gurule put the game away in the 66th minute, scoring his second goal of the game. Rodriguez sent a ball out wide to Ekeze, who drove in a low ball back across the face of the goal. Gurule beat his defender to the near post and knicked it in past the goalkeeper, giving CBU a 3-0 lead.

"We've been asking our guys to commit more numbers in the box," said Schroeder. "Jeromy found himself in the right spot at the right time and tucked it away. For him, I think today was one of the overall better games I've seen him play. I was happy for him and I hope he'll take that and carry it on."

The Lancers held firm on their defensive end to keep the 3-0 victory, heading into PacWest action on a positive note.

"I think today gives us ground to keep going forward and keep pushing," said Gurule. "We haven't had the best non-conference season, but now we're going to keep working and get the momentum going."

CBU gets time to rest and recover before beginning conference on the road, taking on Holy Names (Sept. 24) and Dominican (Sept. 26) up in Northern California.

"This break will be good from a standpoint that we'll get these guys who have been playing five games in 10 days some much-needed rest," said Schroeder. "That's a lot of soccer. We've done well to fight through that and put ourselves in games. This will give us a chance to really work on things. You don't get that chance most seasons. As much as it was tough playing so many games in 10 days, it'll be great going into conference with a bit of a rest and get everyone working on the same page again."