Lopes lead early, fall to No. 23 Pacific

Sunday, September 10

Stockton, Calif.

7:00 p.m.

Grand Canyon

1-4

Pacific

6-0

Grand Canyon

Pacific

9/10/2017 9:04:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

German scores first goal of season

By: Josh Hauser

STOCKTON, Calif. - Grand Canyon put a scare into the hometown crowd before allowing two second-half goals as No. 23 Pacific remained undefeated with a 2-1 victory over GCU at Knoles Field on Sunday evening. It was the Lopes' third one-goal loss of the season, all coming against Top-25 competition.

"I thought this was one of our best games that we've played this year," head coach Schellas Hyndman said. "They're one of the better teams we've played. I thought we had a really good first half. They had chances, but nothing on goal. We had a lot of chances. It was good to get the lead, we just weren't able to hold on."

The Lopes (1-4) took a lead in the 25th minute on Damian German's first goal of the year. After the goalkeeper deflected a Niki Jackson shot, the ball landed right at the feet of German who easily tapped the ball into the net to put GCU in front. In six matches, it was just the second time this season that Pacific (6-0) faced a deficit.

Grand Canyon maintained its 1-0 lead into the break. GCU was able to put a halt to all of Pacific's scoring opportunities in the latter stages of the first period, including a couple of dangerous run-outs on counter attacks.

After a physical game on Thursday night, three starters for GCU were banged up and kept out of Sunday's match. Jordan Slack, Charlie Keating and Khadim Seye were held out.

"We went with some players that haven't started for us," Hyndman said. "Austin Day had a good game. Malik Smith started and played the whole 90 and did a good job. Alex Ramirez started also."

While GCU got the better of the serious scoring opportunities in the first half, posting four on-frame shots compared to just one for Pacific, the tables turned in the second period. The Tigers came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders. It appeared Pacific had found the equalizer just 30 seconds into the second period, but offsides was whistled and GCU held its lead for a bit longer.

About 10 minutes later, however, a swarm of Pacific players filled the box and eventually found the net with Tyson Fox scoring his second of the year.

Pacific ensured the game wasn't tied for long. After scoring in the 55th minute to tie, the Tigers took the lead in the 62nd minute. Alfredo Alcala found open space in the box and struck a shot from the middle that found its way past GCU goalkeeper Jeremy Pollard.

Despite both teams taking seven first-half shots, the Tigers nearly doubled up GCU's opportunities 8-5 in the second half. Grand Canyon's best shot at the equalizer came in the 70th minute when the ball bounced around the box multiple times. No GCU player could get a solid touch on the ball though, and the opportunity ended in a comfortable save for Pacific's keeper.

In the final five minutes, the Lopes had a pair of free kicks from just outside the box, but Pacific thwarted both opportunities. Grand Canyon's best look in the waning minutes came when Musa Morris Demos fired a clean shot from the top of the box, but it sailed past the top left corner of the net.

"I told the players after the game, we're never happy with a loss, obviously," Hyndman said. "But I'm happy with the improvements we are making from game to game."

The Lopes return home to GCU Stadium for the next four matches where they are 1-0 on the young season. In order, GCU will face UC Riverside, CSUN, Oral Roberts, and the WAC opener against Houston Baptist. The homestand begins on Thursday, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. MST.

"We have some things to improve on that, quite honestly, we really haven't done the training that we've need to do because of so many travel days," Hyndman said. "These next couple of weeks we're going to really start to fine tune things with more time at home to train. Hopefully we'll get the results we want to get."