Chilly Battle with the Vaqueros

Sunday, October 21

Edinburg, Tex.

9:00 AM

California Baptist University

7-8-1, 3-5-0WAC

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

11-4-0, 6-2-0WAC

California Baptist

UT Rio Grande Valley

Preston Judd scores his 13th goal of the year at UTRGV.

Photo by: Reagan Lee

Chilly Battle with the Vaqueros

10/21/2018 11:06:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information

EDINBURG, Tex. — On a chilly and windy Sunday morning out in Texas, California Baptist University battled with a top team in the Western Athletic Conference and adverse conditions, but dropped a close 2-1 result to The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

"First of all, UTRGV is very, very good and deserves credit [for the win]," said Coach Coe Michaelson. "Today was very difficult for us in part because of that, but also because we had almost half our team experiencing flu-like symptoms from the night before and throughout the game. We did some great things and created some great goal-scoring chances, but as we faded physically, we found ourselves sitting too deep, at which point UTRGV's Kyle Edwards scored two really good goals."

Seventeen minutes into the game, the Lancers found the back of the net to get the scoring going. Oliver Bryneus stole a loose ball away and dribbled into the 18-yard box, laying off a cross to a wide-open Preston Judd at the far post. Judd then one-touched it home to put his team up 1-0 early.

Judd now has 13 goals on the year, which not only leads the WAC, but puts Judd as one of the top-five goal scorers in all of NCAA Division I. It also sits fourth all-time in CBU's single-season record book.

The Vaqueros tried to find an equalizer before halftime, but the Lancer defense held fast to go into halftime with the one-goal lead. In the 64^th minute, however, UTRGV equalized to make it 1-1 and seven minutes later, the Vaqueros scored again to jump in front 2-1.

With just under 20 minutes left to play, the Lancers had time to find an equalizer and turned up the offensive pressure. After drawing a foul in UTRGV territory, Victor Aguirre sent the ball into the box, connecting with Gabriel Silva's head, but it went wide.

After scoring in the last 10 seconds of the game Friday night, the Lancers knew they needed to battle until the final whistle blew.

George Ionascu sent in a dangerous ball with less than 30 seconds remaining on the clock, forcing the Vaquero goalkeeper to come off his line and punch it out for a corner kick. Off the corner kick, Ionascu fired a shot off a loose ball from 20 yards out, but a UTRGV defender managed to just step in front to seal the 2-1 result.

"We are disappointed not to get something from it, but I'm very proud of the guys," said Michaelson. "They gave every ounce of what they had in spite of how they felt and we had chances until the final minute. Hopefully we can keep this from spreading further and get healthy for two big home games next week."

CBU drops to 7-8-1 on the year, 3-5-0 in the WAC, with the loss. The Vaqueros – who came into the game sitting in third place in the conference standings and rank 50^th in the latest NCAA RPI standings – improve to 11-4-0 and 6-2 in conference.

The Lancers return home for their two last games at Lancer Soccer Field, before closing out the first NCAA Division I season on the road at CSU Bakersfield. CBU hosts Kansas City on Friday for a 12:30 p.m. kick off.