Box Score In a battle of two teams on the verge of the NAIA Top-25, Cal State San Marcos men's soccer suffered its second straight close loss, falling on the road to Biola University 1-0.
The Cougars drop to a very tough 0-2 on the year. Biola improves to 1-0.
After a last-minute 1-0 loss at home to Ashford last Saturday, Tuesday's loss unfortunately felt a little like déjà vu for Coach Ron Pulvers and his squad. In both cases, CSUSM was right in the match with a tough opponent, and in both cases a second half mistake led to the game's lone goal off a corner kick.
“We put ourselves in a bad spot, and undid ourselves again,” noted Coach Pulvers following the match.
Biola's goal was scored by Cody Shelton in the 65th minute. Biola out-shot CSUSM 16-7 and held a 7-5 edge in corner kicks.
CSUSM keeper Kiki Castro, making his first career start for the Cougars, made 6 saves in the loss.
There is a silver lining for CSUSM. In 2009, the team started 1-3 and finished 11-6-1. In 2010, the team started 2-3-1 and ended 12-4-2. An 0-2 start with two razor-thin losses is painful, but Coach Pulvers' teams have shown they can handle tough starts.
The Cougars will travel to take on Azusa Pacific on Saturday.
