Hot Victory for the Lancers

Friday, October 26

Riverside, Calif.

12:30 PM

California Baptist University

8-8-1, 4-5WAC

Kansas City

3-12-0, 2-7WAC

UMKC

California Baptist

Photo by: Reagan Lee

Hot Victory for the Lancers

10/26/2018 3:35:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

By: Sammi Wellman, Director of Sports Information

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — As temperatures hit the 90s in Riverside, California Baptist University turned up the heat on the Lancer Soccer Field and grabbed a 3-0 victory over Kansas City Friday afternoon.

CBU didn't waste any time, striking in the fourth minute of action. After drawing a foul deep in UMKC territory, Sebastian Wiesbock drove a low ball into the 18-yard box. Chris Heckenberg redirected it back to the left side, connecting with George Ionascu, who tucked it away into the far post.

"It's always nice to get an early goal," said Michaelson. "I thought after that, the first half wasn't our best. In fairness to UMKC, they had a lot of the ball. Second half was one-way traffic. I thought we played really well and we feel like we might have left a few goals on the table today."

Six minutes later, Preston Judd looked like he might double the Lancers' lead, sprinting past a Roo defender onto a long through ball, but his shot was just a little too high.

UMKC settled down for the remainder of the half, only allowing a one-goal deficit at halftime.

"As much as they had possession in the first half, we didn't give up too many chances," said Michaelson. "That's definitely a credit to us defensively and I think anytime we get a shutout, we have a good chance to win."

Coming out of halftime, the Lancers opened the second half in similar fashion and capitalized less than five minutes into the frame.

Ionascu played a ball on the pitch for Niklas Haakenstad to run onto in the 49^th minute. Haakenstad muscled off his defender and found the back of the net through the goalkeeper's legs to up CBU's lead to 2-0.

"Niklas came in off the bench and provided a great spark for us," said Michaelson. "His work rate and play really helped improve our possession and changed the game for us."

CBU kept its foot on the pedal, looking for some more goals, and Haakenstad delivered in the 84^th minute. Oliver Bryneus played a ball for him to run onto and he tucked away the breakaway to give CBU a 3-0 upper hand.

"I got two really good through balls from Oliver and George and they were easy finishes," said Haakenstad. "Have to give credit to my teammates for the great services."

It capped the scoring as the Lancers improved to 8-8-1 on the year and 4-5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference with the result, while the Roos drop to 3-12-0 overall, 2-7-0 in conference.

The Lancers have one last home game left in their inaugural Division I season, hosting Houston Baptist on Sunday at 3 p.m. Five seniors – Nick Forrester, Matthias Binder, Caley Powers, Junior Guerra and Gabriel Silva – will be honored prior to kickoff.