Westmont men’s soccer hosted NAIA Division II Notre Dame de Namur (5-2-1) yesterday at Russ Carr Field and found themselves on the wrong end of a 1-0 shutout.

The only goal came 14 minutes into the game when the Argonauts’ Anthony Putrus headed in a corner kick from Anthony Marinic. “The thing we struggled with the most was communication,” acknowledged head coach Dave Wolf. “On the corner we conceded that led to the goal, we cleared the ball out of bounds when we didn’t really have to do so. We had time to collect it and do something different with it. But the communications wasn’t there to let the defender know he had time.”

The lack of communication hurt the Warriors offensively as well. “We had two situations in the second half where we had very good crossed balls sent into the box,” said Wolf. “But a lack of communication resulted in our players getting in the way of each other. When you don’t capitalize on those situations against a good team, you are not going to win.”

The Warriors had another opportunity to score when Johnny Alcaraz took a free kick late in the game. Alcaraz launched the ball over a four person wall, but the Argonaut keeper was able to snatch the ball out of the air to prevent the tie.

Westmont finishes the pre-GSAC season with a record of 3-2-2. On Saturday, the Warriors will host a friendly exhibition with a homecoming game against the alumni at 1:00 p.m. The GSAC schedule begins on Wednesday at Russ Carr Field as the Warriors take on Concordia (3-3) in a four o’clock game.

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