LA VERNE, Calif. — The University of La Verne men's soccer team went down 3-0 in a blink of an eye, battled all the way back but lost steam in the last 15 minutes as it lost a barnburner to Occidental, 5-3, on Monday night at Ortmayer Stadium.

How it happened: It happened in a flash.

After a sluggish start to the game on both sides, Occidental's Tod Kawada scored three goals in 59 seconds to put the Tigers up, 3-0. The freshman opened the scoring at the 13:01 mark to put Oxy on the board and before the visiting fans had a chance to sit back down, Oxy drove toward the La Verne goal again and Kawada tucked away his second goal of the night at the 13:40 mark. Then just 20 seconds later, Kawada found another pocket of space to poke in his third score.

It could have been worse for La Verne, but the Leopards regrouped and reorganized. In the 29^th minute, La Verne found some space in the Oxy third on a counterattack and Nathan Gonzalez played a perfect ball to Mario Interiano on the right side with room to drive. Interiano dribbled a few feet and drilled a shot to upper left corner that had no chance of being saved.

Both teams came out with more energy out of the break. Oxy launched three shots in succession in the 53^rd minute that were blocked by the defenders but it was La Verne who found the goal first. In the 55^th minute, Gonzalez weaved past Oxy defenders from the right side and found the back of the net to bring La Verne within 3-2 and just five minutes later, he showed off more dribble moves and tied the game at 3-3 with a strike in the box.

It was over when: All the momentum seemed to be in La Verne's side after Gonzalez's goals, but a non-call in the penalty box in the 64^th minute turned the game on its head again. Oxy drove right back down the field and Keegan McChesney fired a rocket that hit the bottom of the crossbar. Then in the 75^th minute, Michale Tonetti drove a shot past La Verne's Darrin Bangle that bounced into the net off the left post. With about four minutes left in the game, Kawada sealed the win for Oxy when he made a sneaky run behind the back line, received a perfect through ball and beat Bangle to the right for his fourth brace of the night.

Player of the game: Gonzalez came off the bench and almost single-handedly changed the complexion of the game. He was active, aggressive and created chances for his teammates.

Kawada was a nightmare all night long. He showed a knack for getting behind a La Verne back line that's been solid most of the season and showed good technique on the ball. Kawada also assisted Tonetti's goal with a perfectly directed pass off his chest.

From head coach Trevor Persson:

On a tough loss: "The hard part for us is we do all that work to battle back and then just lose the grip on the game. We mentally took a break for 59 seconds in the first half and the last 15 minutes of the game."

On the turning point of the game: "Oxy charged right down the field after what I felt was a missed penalty call, hit the crossbar and we cleared it out, but that was the shift. We put belief right back into Oxy."

On Tod Kawada: "He was able to find pockets within our defense and we were just late getting to certain rotations. He's very clever, very technical."

Up next: After a 4-0-1 start to the season, La Verne dropped its fourth straight match and falls to 1-4-0 in SCIAC play. With a break here and there, the Leopards easily could've gotten results in all those matches. The Leopards will try to turn their luck around when travel to Pasadena to face Caltech on Saturday at 6 p.m.