Warriors Fall to Knights of Warner Pacific, 3-1

The Warriors return to action on Friday, when they travel to Albertson College of Idaho for a 3:00 PM match-up with the conference leading Coyotes on Symms Field in Caldwell, Idaho.

Photo courtesy: Corban College

SALEM - Sophomore Fernardo Karczeski scored the game's first goal, but it was not enough as Corban's men's soccer team fell to the Knights of Warner Pacific, 3-1, in a battle for third place in the conference standings on Wednesday.

Coming into the game, Corban had a one point lead on Warner Pacific in the Cascade Collegiate Conference standings for third place and a win would have tied them with Concordia for second place heading into the final two weekends of the season.

In the 16th minute, Karczeski hooked up with juniors Joshua Crain and Caleb Louvier for his second goal of the season. Louvier began the play by dribbling through a host of Knight defenders before laying the ball off to Crain on the near sideline. Crain then lofted a pass from just outside the 18-yard box over the defense, as Karczeski ran onto the ball and one-timed the shot past a diving Warner Pacific goalkeeper for the game's first goal and his second of the season against the Knights.

Less than ten minutes later, Warner Pacific's leading scorer J.B. Cunha netted his first goal of the game on an assist from Zach Barron. Barron began the play by unloading a midfield pass onto Cunha, who had snuck behind the defense and was waiting at the 18-yard box. With no one but Corban's net-minder between him and the goal, Cunha lofted a shot up over the final wall of defense and into the back of a wide-open net. With Cunha's 10th goal of the season, the game was knotted at 1-all in the 25th minute.

After controlling the first half shots by a 9-4 advantage, Corban came out in the second half and quickly fell behind when Cunha netted his second goal of the game when he hooked up with teammate Chris Price in the 48th minute. Price began the play by sending a through ball onto the awaiting foot of Cunha, who calmly collected the pass and one-timed a shot into the back of the net for his conference-leading 11th goal of the season.

Down by a mere score, the Warriors began to put the pressure on their opponents from Portland and nearly scored on numerous occasions. Unfortunately for Corban, Warner Pacific ended all hopes of a comeback when Brandon Chase scored his first goal of the season on a combo-assist from Brock Long and Matt Johnson. Johnson began the play with a pass to a wide-open Long running down the far sideline. Long collected the ball and dribbled towards the end line before lofting a pass towards the far post to an incoming Chase, who headed the ball into the back of the net for the final score of the contest.

Sophomore goalkeeper James DelCastillo ended with a game-high 4 saves for Corban, while Warner Pacific's Brandon Mitalis needed to make a mere 2 saves en route to picking up the much-needed win for the Knights.

Corban is now 6-6-2 overall, 4-4-1 in Cascade Collegiate Conference play. Meanwhile, Warner Pacific improves to 6-6-0 overall, 5-4-0 in CCC action.

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