LA VERNE, Calif. — Nathan Gonzalez and Saul Uribe each scored two goals as the University of La Verne men's soccer team defeated Cal Lutheran, 4-1, at Ortmayer Stadium on Homecoming Saturday.

What it means: A loss would have knocked La Verne (7-7-0 SCIAC) out of SCIAC Postseason Tournament contention. The Leopards can get in if they win the remaining two games and either Redlands or Chapman loses its last two games.

How it happened: La Verne dominated the run of play out of the gate and opened the scoring in the third minute. Justin Almandinger got the ball deep in the midfield just in front of the back line and played a perfect ball over the top to create a one-on-one chance for Uribe. Uribe ran it down, made a quick cut to the right and easily slotted one past Cal Lutheran goalkeeper Sean Williams to give the Leopards a 1-0 lead.

La Verne outshot Cal Lutheran, 9-5, in the first half and came close to adding to the lead on several occasions. Uribe missed a couple of golden opportunities by mere inches and Javier Jasso struck the crossbar on a free kick, but the Leopards could not find the insurance goal until the 67^th minute.

On a long ball out of the back, Nick Gonsalves flicked a back header to streaking Gonzalez, freeing him up to a one-on-one opportunity against Williams. Then the Cal Lutheran goalie came out of his net, made a rash dive into Gonzalez's legs and was shown a straight red. Gonzalez calmly tucked in the penalty into the right corner to give the Leopards a 2-0 cushion.

The 10-man Cal Lutheran struck back almost immediately. Not five minutes after Gonzalez's penalty, Cal Lutheran's Elmer Molina drilled one from the distance bring the Kingsmen within 2-1.

But a man disadvantage was too much to overcome for Cal Lutheran. Uribe got his second goal of the night in the 77^th minute on an assist from Gonzalez in the box and Gonzalez capped off the night's scoring in the 86^th minute on a pass from Lorenzo Leyva.

Defensive key: Cal Lutheran forward Zack Larson came into the game on fire, having scored nine goals in his last nine games and five in his last three. But the Leopards bottled him up the entire game and Larson never created a meaningful moment.

Players of the game: Uribe and Gonzalez scored in the same game for the first time this season and the results were explosive.

Uribe easily could have ended up with a couple more goals. He had a point blank shot saved, missed a couple by mere inches and put one just over the crossbar in the second half.

Gonzalez now has 10 goals (seven in SCIAC) on the season and Uribe is at seven (four in SCIAC).

From head coach Trevor Persson:

On Gonzalez and Uribe: "They were on their game against Whittier but just didn't finish our chances. Tonight, we actually finished our chances. They got very comfortable with each other … It took the rest of the team to find them properly for those two to start linking up. Before, if we kicked it to one of them, the other would just watch. Now they are working with each other."

On stopping Zack Larson: "We had a 'bubble' that we put around the 18 [-yard box]. We allowed him to play outside of that but once he started penetrating, we would close him down as quickly as we could."

Up next: La Verne returns to action on Tuesday a 7 p.m. in a must-win game against Caltech at Ortmayer Stadium. It's the last home game of the season and La Verne's lone senior Erik LeVay will be honored with a brief pregame ceremony.