Riverside—The UC Riverside Men's Soccer Team (9-4-1, 4-0-1) remained unbeaten in Big West play Wednesday evening, following a 3-0 victory over visiting UC Irvine (3-11-0, 1-4-0) . The Highlanders now have the best record in the conference, as the top team in the North Division, UC Santa Barbara, dropped to 3-0-2 following a 1-1 draw against Sacramento State.
Big West
Men's Soccer Standings |
| NORTH DIVISION |
| UC Santa Barbara |
3 |
0 |
2 |
11 |
| Sacramento State |
2 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
| UC Davis |
2 |
3 |
0 |
6 |
| Cal Poly |
1 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
|
|
|
|
| SOUTH DIVISION |
| UC Riverside |
4 |
0 |
1 |
13 |
| CSUN |
2 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
| Cal State Fullerton |
1 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
| UC Irvine |
1 |
4 |
0 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
|
UC Riverside's four Big West wins on the year also tie the program record for most conference victories in a season.
The Highlanders picked up that fourth win largely thanks to Romario Lomelli, who scored the team's first goal and was credited with assists on the other two.
UC Irvine had the better of the play early on, however, catching UCR on its heels early taking eight shots over the first 21 minutes of play. The Highlanders kept their net clean, however, and Lomeli put them on the board in the 24th minute, collecting Tyler Miguel's throw in in the right corner, and beating Anteaters' keeper Elliott Farmer to the left post. That was Lomeli's team-leading fifth score of the season
Less than five minutes later Raul Guerrero found Lomeli in the left corner, and Lomeli's cross into the box found Stephen Copley. Copley's one-time from three yards out dented the back of the net to give the Highlanders a 2-0 lead.
The scoring ended in the 42nd minute when Lomeli found Philipp Dominique with a corner kick. Dominique rose above the defense and headed the ball into the net for his second goal of the year.
Lomeli now leads the Big West with eight assists and 18 points on the season, and is tied atop UC Riverside's single-season assist chart with Juan Mendoza and Juan Gutierrez.
Vincent Morales collected eight saves in the match, and leads the conference with 79 on the season. His save percentage of .814 is also tops in th league.
UC Riverside heads to Cal State Fullerton this Saturday, October 15 for a 7 pm PT kick off against the Titans.
