DAY'S PENALTY KICK BEATS WHITMAN IN 85TH MINUTE
LOS ANGELES — Nearly 4,000 miles away from home, with 5 minutes left to play in regulation,Jack Day (London, England) buried a right-footed penalty kick that broke a 0-0 tie and gave the Occidental College men's soccer team a 1-0 win over Whitman College in its first match of the season on Friday.
Oxy's Connor Freeman (Mercer Island, Wash.) beat his man off the dribble just inside the right corner of the 18-yard box, forcing Whitman's Jed Jacobsen to foul. Then Day waited for the whistle and confidently placed the ball in the bottom right corner past Missionaries goalkeeper Michael Bathurst.
"It was slightly nerve-wracking because it was my first game, but I was pretty confident and it was a nice feeling to tuck it away," said Day, who's been in the United States for less than a month. "It was quite near the end of the game and we've worked so hard in the preseason so it felt amazing."
Freeman's effort and Day's finish show off a talented group of newcomers and underclassmen on Oxy's roster this year.
"(Freeman) just beat the guy one on one in the box and he had to take him down. He's so explosive," Oxy head coach Rod Lafaurie said. "I'm so excited about Connor Freeman, and proud of Jack Day for putting that PK away."
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It was a nice cap for the Tigers (1-0) in a mostly evenly played game against a team that's already beaten two SCIAC schools, including the defending conference champions — Whitman won at Redlands 1-0 on Aug. 31 and at Pomona-Pitzer, 2-1, on Sept. 2. Redlands went undefeated in regular-season SCIAC play in 2011.
"We still have some things to work on, but I'm proud of their effort, their intensity," Lafaurie said. "I think their commitment to playing like a team was evident and if we play like this we'll be tough to beat."
For the first 85 minutes, both teams had trouble beating the other.
Whitman's best chance to get on the scoreboard came less than 2 minutes into the second half. Andrew Clark nearly finished a header that forced Oxy keeper Ian Agrimis (Portland, Ore.) to make a diving save and then with a vacant net, Junpei Tsuji right-footed volley missed wide right.
Ben Murray (Sandpoint, Idaho), Oxy's leading goal scorer in 2011, had a pair of shots on goal. His first was a rocket from 45 yards out in the 56th minute that wowed a crowd of 521 when a fully-extended Bathurst barely saved it from the upper left corner of the goal.
Oxy midfielder Alessandro Carotenuto (Scottsdale, Ariz.) made his first start for the Tigers since injuring himself at the beginning of last season.
Oxy went deep into its bench, playing 22 players.
Three players were cautioned; Whitman's Cooper Schumacher, and Oxy's Keegan McChesney(Seattle, Wash.) and Michael Tonetti (Las Vegas, Nev.).
The Tigers open SCIAC play at 7 p.m. on Monday at Redlands.
