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California Dreaming: Soccer drops two games

Following a 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the University of San Diego, soccer head coach Jim DeRose had to make changes.

The five goals were the most the Braves had allowed in a game since September 1996, DeRose’s first year as head coach. During that stretch of games in 1996, the Braves allowed nine goals in three games.

The loss to the Toreros made it painfully obvious that the team’s defense was in need of something. Anything.

DeRose’s response was to make moves. Literally. Before the game against California State-Northridge, Sunday he told juniors Grant Bell and Andrew Brown to switch the focus of their game from an offensive outlook, to a more defensive one.

“We took some of our veteran guys and pushed them more into the back line and in more defending roles,” DeRose said. “We made the decision on Sunday to solidify more defense.”

DeRose’s strategy to use the veteran players in more defensive roles almost worked. However, there was one thing that the Braves missed Sunday against the Matadors, and that was offense.

By the end of the night, the Braves saw their losing streak drop to four straight, but did not see one goal in their favor as they lost to CSUN 1-0 in double overtime.

Sophomore forward Christian Okeke recorded two of the three Braves shots on goal, and nearly won the game in the first overtime with his shot went throughTorero keeper Adam Hobbs. But, Hobbs recovered just in time to keep the game from ending.

The Toreros then won the game in the second overtime when forward Sagi Lev-Ari scored his fifth goal of the year past Logan Ketterer, who replaced Shea Niemeyer in goal.

Junior Grant Bell, who played the whole match in his new role of shut down defender, embraced the switch.

“We’re a very defensively oriented team, that’s the way we won games in the past,” Bell said. “We have to defend before we can attack.”

Even though the Braves fell to CSUN, the defensive minded strategy implemented by DeRose looked promising.

“I always [say] this: if things are going wrong you can’t correct three things at once,” DeRose said. “We made the decision on Sunday to solidify more defense. We had a chance to steal the game a few times.”

Through the first five games, DeRose’s squad has looked little like the team that won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament last season. However, he attributes the early season struggles to having a new set of players.

“We don’t have a young team, we have a new team,” DeRose said. “I think for them, they need to find their identity.”

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