Whittier, CA - The University of La Verne men's soccer team traveled to Whittier College for a midweek conference road contest. The Leopards entered the contest fresh off of a road victory over Linfield University, looking to continue the winning ways in the SCIAC matchup. Whittier, yet to have won a game this season was looking for their first victory of the year. The first half of play was a defensive battle, as neither team would find the net, resulting in the game being tied at zero at halftime. The defensive intensity continued in the second half of play on both sides of the field. La Verne would break the game when Joel Trejo scored a goal off of an assist from Asher Smith at the 84:40 mark of the game. The Leopards would then hold off the Poets to win on the road by a final score of 1-0.

Head coach Trevor Persson was happy to see the work his team has put in surface over the last couple of games. "We have worked extremely hard to get to this point in our season. We purposely created a jam-packed preseason schedule with some very high-quality opponents to best prepare our team for SCIAC competition. The last two games were nothing but amazing. Taking the final game in a very difficult travel weekend launched us into a level of belief that I haven't seen from a ULV team since 2015-2016. Then to take Whittier to the wire and score with just under 5 minutes remaining, while holding the shutout, was a massive momentum builder. With CMS on Saturday, at CMS, we know we are as prepared as we will ever be to see where we stack up against the preseason #1 ranked team in SCIAC."

The Leopard travel to Claremont-M-S for a road contest Saturday, September 17th. The game starts at 7:00pm.