St. Mary's men top Portland

Moraga, CA – The Saint Mary’s men’s soccer team defeated the first-place Portland Pilots 2-0 on Sunday afternoon at Saint Mary’s Stadium. Erik Rivas netted a goal in the third minute of the game while Malcolm Alugas also scored as the SMC defense shutout the Pilots. The shutout was Saint Mary’s seventh of the season, tying the school-record set last year. “I’m very happy and proud of our seniors,” said head coach Adam Cooper. “We came up with six big points this weekend… our returners are hungry to get back to the NCAA Tournament.” The Gaels now have 15 points in the West Coast Conference standings, pulling within two points of first-place Portland (17). LMU and Santa Clara have 16 points apiece and face each other this afternoon. With the win, Saint Mary’s improves to 9-5-1, 5-3-0 WCC, while Portland drops to 8-3-5, 5-2-2 WCC. The Gaels came out firing and did not let up all game as Saint Mary’s took a total of 20 shots, including 12 in the first-half. Rivas’ goal came in the third minute of the game. Patrick Watson and Justin Grider assisted on the goal as Rivas took the shot from the box after a deflection off the goalkeeper. In the second half, Malcolm Alugas connected on a header from six yards out off a throw in and touch from Nathan Arambula and Justin Grider. The goal came in the 56th minute to put the Gaels ahead 2-0. Doug Herrick was back in goal for the Gaels, notching his seventh win of the year and sixth shutout of the season. The six shutouts is one shy of tying the single-season school record for the goalkeeper position. Herrick is now up to 13 career shutouts, trailing only Rob Mason who recorded 13.5 shutouts from 2004-07. Rivas paced the Gaels with five shots, while Tom Mohoric and Agustin Cazarez took four shots apiece. Arambula, Dylan Leslie and Trevor Newquist all added shots on goal. For the Pilots, Ryan Luke took four of Portland’s 12 shots, while Jarad vanSchaik added two shots. In goal for Portland, Austin Guerrero tallied six saves and allowed two goals in his 90 minutes. Shortly before kick-off, Leslie, Rivas and Jordan Grider were honored in a Senior Day ceremony. Saint Mary’s is back in action on Wednesday, November 3 when it hosts San Francisco. Kick-off is set for 3:00 p.m. at Saint Mary’s Stadium.