REDLANDS, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's soccer team fell to the University of Redlands Bulldogs 3-1 on Thursday night. UC Santa Cruz outshot the Bulldogs 12-10 overall, but Redlands put seven on frame to the Banana Slugs four. Soren Groessl was the lone goal scorer for UCSC, finding the back of the net in the 80th minute. UC Santa Cruz is now 4-2 on the season and will stay in Southern California for their next contest as they travel to Whittier College on Saturday at 7:00 p.m.
 
How It Happened
The contest got off to a quick start as the Bulldogs struck just 5:44 into the match, scoring off a long throw in that floated across the box and in front of the goal mouth before eventually getting poked through to the back of the net, putting UCSC behind 1-0. The Bulldogs kept up the intensity and struck again in the 24th minute to double their lead to 2-0.

Out of the halftime break, Redlands was on their heels for a few moments as UCSC fired off three shots from Marcus Hevesy-Rodriguez, Michael Braun, and Kotetsu Horike but one shot was off target while the other two were saved, keeping Redlands in the lead 2-0. Shortly after the Banana Slugs flurry of shots, Redlands countered, scoring their third goal of the day in the 57th minute to take a strong 3-0 lead over UCSC.
 
The Banana Slugs picked up the intensity for the final 30 minutes of action and finally found the back of the net in the 80th minute after Roman Fiechter and Roman Avagimov flicked a ball across the box before Soeren Groessl slotted it just underneath the keeper's arms to cut the deficit to 3-1. Despite the late pressure, UCSC couldn't find the back of the net, ultimately falling 3-1 to the Bulldogs on Thursday night.