REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's Soccer team advanced past Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Tournament Semifinal on Wednesday 5-4 on penalty kicks after playing to a 1-1 draw through 110 minutes. They will now travel into Los Angeles to play the No. 1 seed and the SCIAC regular season champions Occidental College with the winner receiving the automatic berth into the NCAA Division III National Championships. The game will kick off at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 4.

Tickets are $10 online or $10 cash only on-site. SCIAC students, faculty and staff with an institution ID, and children under 12 are free. Links to tickets and other documents can be found on the men's soccer schedule attached to the game on goredlands.com.  

Redlands
In the semifinal against the Stags (Box Score | Recap) the Bulldogs scored to even the game at one in the 87^th minute thanks to a Phillip Kostenko (Redmond, WA) goal. Overall, the Bulldogs out-shot the Stags 19-13, though, the shots on-goal advantage was only two (6-4), and CMS had two more corners (7-5). Seth Lawrence (Redlands, CA) made two saves in the shootout as the Bulldogs won 5-4 in six rounds.

During the SCIAC regular season the Bulldogs as a team led SCIAC with 31 goals and tied Occidental for the fewest allowed with 11 thanks to the best save percentage from their goalkeepers at .771.

Individually Spencer Palmer (San Diego, CA) and Jarette Barajas (San Jose, CA) each tied for third with seven goals. Palmer led the conference with four game-winning goals. Four Bulldogs finished in the top-five in assists with three: Gabriel Martinez (San Jose, CA), Palmer, Anders Beckton (Seattle, WA), and Barajas.

In goal Lawrence had the second lowest goal against average (GAA) at 1.01. His .756 save percentage was joint best during conference play and his 2.82 saves per game are eighth highest.

The Bulldogs had six players named to the All-SCIAC first and second teams with Barajas, Palmer, and Lawrence all making the first team and Skylar Darwen, Jacob Sattler, and Kostenko on the second. Barajas was also the SCIAC Offensive Athlete of the Year.

Occidental
It was a comprehensive 3-0 win (Box Score) for the Tigers against the No. 4 seed California Lutheran University on Wednesday night.  The Tigers outshot the Kingsmen 16-9 and put four more shots on-goal (9-5).

During the SCIAC regular season Occidental finished second to Redlands with 28 goals scored and tied the Bulldogs for fewest conceded at 11.

Individually the Tigers are led by Andrew Notter who scored seven goals during conference play, the third most. Oury Diane also scored five times, ninth most. Notter's two game-winning goals are second most while three other Tigers have at least one game-winning goal. Joey Schwartz and Diane finished with five and four assists apiece, good for first and third within SCIAC.

In goal Riley Nyhan played 1050 minutes with a sub-one GAA, tops in the conference. He also posted four shutouts, the most, along with 34 saves.

Occidental's Coaching Staff earned SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year honors, while a conference-high eight Tigers made All-SCIAC: Even Karp, Schwartz, and Notter making the first team and Nyhan, Lukas Howlett, Max Stanley, Vicente Navarro, and Diane on the second. Karp was also named the SCIAC Defensive Athlete of the Year.

Head-to-Head
The two sides have met twice this season with the Tigers winning 2-0 at Farquhar Field (Box Score) and 2-1 in Los Angeles (Box Score).

Historically the Bulldogs have dominated the series with a 36-6-1 all-time record dating back to 2002, including a 16-2-1 mark on the road. Over the last 10 meetings Redlands has won six of 10. Only twice in those 10 games has the game ended with a margin of victory greater than one, the 2-0 loss at home this season and a 2-0 road win in the 2017.

The two losses this season is the first time that the Tigers have beat the Bulldogs twice in a season and only the second time they have won back-to-back games with the only prior occurrence coming at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019, both in Redlands.

This will be the first matchup between the two programs in the SCIAC Tournament since 2018 when Occidental won 1-0 in the Semi-Finals at Farquhar Field.