TACOMA, Wa. – The UC Santa Cruz men's soccer team dropped a hard fought 2-1 match against the Lutes of Pacific Lutheran to end their Pacific Northwest road trip on Sunday afternoon. With the loss, the Banana Slugs are now 3-1-0 on the year and will return to Santa Cruz to host the Caltech Beavers on Saturday, Sept. 13 at 2:00 p.m. The Banana Slugs and Lutes squared off in a fairly even physical battle with both teams recording 11 fouls while USCC outshot Pacific Lutheran 20-19 with 10 shots on frame to PLU's five. In the back and forth battle, both teams were awarded three yellow cards with play getting increasingly physical throughout the contest.

How It Happened
The Banana Slugs took the opening shot of the contest off the foot of Michael Braun in the 2nd minute, but PLU countered to take their first shot of the game just 24 seconds later. The two teams continued to create chances, but PLU finally found the back of the net in the 41st minute, capitalizing on a corner kick opportunity to go up 1-0.

The Lutes led for just a couple minutes as Michael Braun found Jackson Chandler inside the box in the 44th minute with Chandler striking the back of the net on a deflected shot to even things at 1-1 heading into halftime.

The Banana Slugs seemed to have the better of the chances in the second half, outshooting PLU 12-8 in the final 45 minutes but the Lutes struck the game winner at 68:29 to go up 2-1. UC Santa Cruz's best chance came in the 84th minute as a flurry of shots from Joaquin Greenberg, Soren Groessl, and Michael Braun all tested the PLU goalkeeper and the back line. Despite the heavy pressure by UCSC in the final moments of action, PLU was able to hold on, handing UCSC their first loss of the 2025 season.