Author: Ryan Whalen
Football (3-3 overall, 2-2 SCIAC)
Coming off of a homecoming loss to Chapman, the Occidental football team (3-3 overall, 2-2 SCIAC) redeemed itself against four-time defending conference champion Cal Lutheran on Saturday with a 44-34 victory. “It’s a huge win against one of the best teams in the SCIAC,” head coach Doug Semones said. “We finally put a complete game together; offense, defense and special teams for 60 minutes. We had played some good halves, but we hadn’t finished. And today we played a complete game.” After giving up the first touchdown of the game to the Kingsmen halfway through the first quarter, the Tigers called upon running back Kwame Do (sophomore) to act as the equalizer. Do answered on the fourth play of the ensuing drive, taking a hand-off and slicing through the defense for a 61-yard touchdown run. He solidified himself as the center of the Tiger offense, finishing the night with a career-high 258 rushing yards and four touchdowns on his way to a SCIAC Male Student-Athlete of the Week selection. The first half of the game was a back-and-forth battle. The teams each scored twice before Occidental took the lead for good at 20-14 with 10 minutes left in the second quarter on a Do 70-yard scamper. Casey Dudley (sophomore) intercepted a goal line pass to preserve Occidental’s six-point lead going into halftime. Dudley again came up with a game-changing defensive play late in the third quarter, picking up a fumble forced by Tiger defensive lineman Aaron Jones (junior) and cruising 30 yards into the end zone to give the black and orange a 30-14 lead. Although the Kingsmen scored three times in the final quarter, a fourth touchdown run by Do secured Occidental’s 10-point victory, marking the first time since the 2008 SCIAC Championship team bested Cal Lutheran. “It was a great team win,” receiver Sam Stekol (junior), who caught seven passes for 133 yards and a touchdown in the contest, said. “We came out firing in the first half; we knew that we were going to have to play all four quarters…It was huge for the team.” The squad travels to Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
Men’s Soccer (2-15 overall, 1-13 SCIAC)
The Occidental men’s soccer team showed some fight on Saturday in their match-up against La Verne. The Tigers found themselves on the wrong side of an early 2-0 deficit halfway through the first half. The squad managed to fight back on Christian Buchmann’s (senior) penalty kick goal, bringing the black and orange within one. Although Occidental had several opportunities to score down the stretch, the Leopard defense stifled the Tiger offense, and a La Verne goal in the 90th minute put the game out of reach by the final score of 3-1. The men host Pomona-Pitzer tonight at 7 p.m. for their final home game of the year.
Women’s Soccer (4-9-2 overall, 3-8-1 SCIAC)
The Occidental women’s soccer team played two conference games last week. The squad took on La Verne on Wednesday in its seventh overtime contest of the season. After being locked in a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation, the Leopards scored the golden goal just two minutes into the bonus period to secure the 2-1 victory. First-year midfielder Kylie Takafuji scored the lone goal for the Tigers in the 13th minute. The black and orange rebounded with a win over Chapman on Saturday, overcoming a 1-0 deficit in the second half on goals by Julie Khil (first-year) and Michaela Tsuha (sophomore). Tsuha’s score from the right wing in the 75th minute secured the 2-1 win for the black and orange. The women host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) at 4 p.m. today for their final home game of the 2013 campaign.
Volleyball (15-9 overall, 8-5 SCIAC)
The Occidental volleyball team split its matches over the weekend. The Tigers were unable to contain the nation’s leading outside hitter, Allie Frappier (junior), and her Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens, dropping the match 3-1. The loss pushed the black and orange down to fifth place in the conference standings. But then the Tigers bounced back with a win over UC Santa Cruz, handily defeating the Banana Slugs in four sets. The team was in action against CMS at the time of publication and hosts Redlands on Friday at 7:30 p.m. for Senior Night.
Men’s Water Polo (1-18 overall, 0-3 SCIAC)
The Tiger men’s water polo team competed in limited action over the weekend, playing just one contest in the form of a Saturday match against Whittier. The Tigers’ offense was stymied by the defensive tenacity of the Poets, and the black and orange was only able to muster single-digit goals in the match. Whittier found success early and often, rolling to a 16-9 victory and extending Occidental’s losing streak to eight games. The Tigers travel to Chapman today at 4 p.m. looking to secure their first conference win of the season.
Tayler Renshaw (Women’s Soccer goalkeeper, No. 1)
The Tiger women’s soccer team has relied on its defense to keep games close with seven different contests this season requiring at least one overtime period. At the center of the squad’s defense is goalie Taylor Renshaw (senior). Renshaw has played every single minute (1,458) of the Tigers’ 15 games this season, pushing her total count to over 3,500 in her collegiate career while collecting 61 saves and a .718 percentage along the way. Renshaw has also notched three shutout performances, two of which ended in Occidental victories. Aside from becoming one of the premier keepers within the SCIAC conference, she has provided an unwavering veteran presence on a team that is filled with mostly underclassmen stars. Renshaw and the rest of the Occidental seniors will play on Patterson Field for the final time this afternoon at 4 p.m. against CMS.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
