Tigers Drop Season Opener

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Sept. 3, 2007) – With just a week of practice under their belt the Occidental men’s soccer team took the field for the first time in 2007 with their season opener against non-conference University of Puget Sound.

The Loggers controlled the game, shutting the Tigers down by a score of 3-0.

Puget Sound’s Taylor Hyde scored a pair of goals and Scott Blanchet added a third to round out the scoring. Oxy battled, but came away empty as the Loggers goalie, Peter Van Sant, made five saves.

Among the starting 11 were six senior Tigers, three juniors and the freshmen duo of Kosa Goucher-Lambert and Rob Riccardi. On the field for the Tigers were three SCIAC All-Conference players from 2006 including First Team forwards John Minger, a senior who had two shots in the game, and junior Fran Taylor.

Defensively the Tigers were led by Second Team All-SCIAC Ben Torgersen.

In front of the goal, Oxy’s Alex Combs made four saves before Ian Powell made his first collegiate appearance. Powell finished with a pair of saves.

Also stepping on the field in black and orange of Occidental for the first time were sophomore transfers Alex Kipling and Gilberto Ortega and freshmen Termaine Tucker and Skylar Roush.

Puget Sound improves to 2-0 on the season after defeating fellow SCIAC school La Verne in their season opened, while the Tigers fall to 0-1 on the young season.

Oxy will travel to Orange, Calif. on Friday to face off against non-conference Chapman University for a 7:00 p.m. start.