MONMOUTH, Ore. – After a 0-0 hard fought first half, the Saints surrendered four goals in their 0-4 loss to CSU-Dominguez Hills.
 
In 2021, the Dominguez Hills Toros were a top 10 team in the NCAA Division II Super Region 4. In the first half of today's game in Monmouth, the Saint Martin's men's soccer team was out shot 12-1, but forced the Toros to play at a high pace tempo and the Saints were able to possess the ball and force the Toros on their back foot at times in the first half. Saints head coach Rob Walker shared, "We were able to see CSU DH play Western Oregon on Friday and we felt like we could bring pressure in different parts of the field and hopefully force turnovers that would lead to chances to score. This is something that when you look above the box score we did pretty well."
 
Saints goalkeeper Nick Mueller, playing in his second string start, had 4 first half saves one of which was a well-timed parry over the bar on a Dominguez Hills free kick. Mueller also had a save getting down to the turf to save a header to his left to keep the goal away.
 
At halftime, the Saints had to look at the results of the first half optimistically but, Dominguez Hills started the second half with good defensive pressure and Saints struggled to keep the ball in their own half. Coach Walker said, "Our issue in not being able to keep the ball is one we've seen repeated a time or two in the last couple weeks. Credit the Toros for upping their game at halftime and giving us a real challenge. We will see this kind of pressure soon when we open conference play. Our task between now and then is to capture the difficult movements and get more comfortable being 'uncomfortable.'"
 
In the second half, the Saints surrendered their first goal of the game at the 57th minute. The Toros followed up with goals in the 69th, 71st, and 73rd minute. "It's hard when you give up a bunch of goals like we did in the second half," despite that we felt that senior Christian Gordon had a strong game for us. "His ball winning and calmness on the ball is something that we need to spread throughout the team as we get back to practice this week," stated, Walker.
 
In reflecting on the match today, junior defender and Captain Seth Kobata said, "The teams focus was strong for a majority of the game until a 15 minute period in which we had a lapse of concentration where preventable goals could've prevented the negative outcome of the match." Kobata went on to say "We've played some tough opponents and teams that are above .500 in these non-conference games but, now we need to take the positives from those games and sharpen our weaknesses so we can start off our conference play in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference strong."
 
Saint Martin's next game will be on September 22 at home against Western Washington for their GNAC opener. Live stats and video will be available on smusaints.com.