Glendora, CA (Men’s Soccer) -- The Citrus College men’s soccer team, staved off a furious late second half push by San Diego Mesa College and picked up a 1-0 win on Friday afternoon. With the win, the Fighting Owls improve to 3-0-1 on the season, its best four game start in Citrus history.
In the first half, it looked like Citrus would cruise to its third victory of the season. The Fighting Owls controlled the tempo of the game, and played practically the entire half on Mesa’s side of the field.
Their early, aggressive play would pay off in the 30th minute when Juan Salas found Eddie Gutierrez through a slew of Mesa defenders inside the Olympians own goal box. With the ball at his feet, and only the goal keeper in front of him, Gutierrez promptly buried the ball in the back of the net for the game’s lone goal.
After playing from behind the entire first half, Mesa came out firing in the second. The Olympians would out-shoot the Fighting Owls 7-4 in the second half, and have numerous opportunities shut-down, thanks to the stellar play of Citrus goal keeper Manabu Kaji, who picked up his second shutout of the short season.
Citrus will try to continue its strong start on Tuesday when it plays host to Southwestern College on Tuesday September 23rd. Game time is set for 3:00 PM.
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