CMS Men's Soccer Dominates, But Settles for Scoreless Tie with Southwestern

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's soccer team had a 25-5 edge in shot attempts and a 16-1 advantage in corner kicks, but had to settle for a 0-0 tie against Southwestern University on Monday morning in a game hosted by Trinity University.

CMS now stands at 0-1-2 on the young season, after tying UC Santa Cruz and falling to No. 13 Trinity in its first two contests. Southwestern moves to 0-1-1 with the tie after falling to Rowan its opener on Saturday. 

Jack Viles had nine saves for Southwestern to get a hard-earned shutout, as the Stags controlled play from the opening whistle. CMS outshot the Pirates 14-0 in the first half, with Viles having to make six saves in the first half alone to keep the game scoreless, including a sequence of two saves off of shots from Patrick Watkins and Rafael Otero within seconds of each other in the 38th minute.

Otero had another bid for a goal saved by Viles to start the second half, which resulted in two more CMS corner kicks, but the Stags were unable to find the net. The Pirates took two shots in the final 10 minutes, hoping for a 1-0 win against the run of play, but couldn't find the target, and CMS had two more chances in the final five minutes, but Jake Allmon had a shot saved in the 86th minute, and Otero had two final chances in the last minute. 

Kevin Box went the distance in goal for CMS, but did not have to make a save in recording the solo shutout. Otero had a team-high five shots, while Justin Blachman had three and seven Stags had two.

CMS will be back in action on Friday for a road game at Willamette, before meeting Pacific Lutheran on Sunday at Willamette in its final non-conference game. The Stags open SCIAC play on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at Redlands and then host their home opener against La Verne on Sept. 17.