WHITTIER, Ca. – The UC Santa Cruz men's soccer team dropped a 1-0 Saturday night match to the Whittier Poets, moving the Banana Slugs to 4-3 on the season. Whittier outshot the Banana Slugs 16-6 overall, putting seven on frame to UC Santa Cruz's one, finding the back of the net in the 66th minute. The Banana Slugs will travel to Texas for their next two matches, taking on Trinity University on Sept. 26 at 5:00 p.m. PT and Southwestern University on Sept. 28 at 9:00 a.m. PT.\
 
How It Happened
The Banana Slugs were tested early in the contest with Whittier taking four shots in the opening 15 minutes with Tobias Jacobson-Bell making one save while the other three missed the mark. The Poets continued to pressure throughout the first half, putting eight shots on the stat sheet in the first 45 minutes with Jacobson-Bell making three saves to keep things tied at 0-0.
After the halftime break, the Poets took three shots, but Jacobson-Bell stood strong to record another save in the 61st minute. UC Santa Cruz managed to counter with two shots from Jackson Chandler with one getting blocked while the other was saved by the Whittier keeper.

Despite physical play through the midfield, the Poets were able to send a ball into the box and poke it past Jacobson-Bell and two defenders in the 68th minute to take a 1-0 lead. The Banana Slugs had two shots get blocked in the 70th and 74th minute from Roman Avagimov and Michael Braun. UCSC had their best opportunity for the equalizer in the 84th minute when Gavin Lane narrowly missed a header over the top left corner of the goal. With time fading away, the Banana Slugs couldn't find the equalizer as the Poets handed UCSC the 1-0 loss.