Posted: Aug 30, 2023
By Francisco Claudio
The Westcliff men's soccer team laced up their cleats to host the Bethesda University Flames in the home opener Tuesday evening.
The Warriors brought the heat onto the field defeating Bethesda 2-0 on a warm summer day in Irvine, California.
Both John Adenkunle and Wissem Obeid continued their strong start to the season scoring a goal apiece.
Adekunle and Obeid have scored in every match this season and are consistently creating opportunities for the team to succeed.
Adekunle scored the first goal in the 21st minute with a couple of assists from Janis Hinterleitner and Obeid.
By that point, the Warriors had taken five shots and it was only a matter of time before the ball hit the back of the net.
The Warriors finished the first half on top and led in every category in the box score.
Westcliff had 10 shots compared to Bethesda's two and they had all five corner kicks.
The second half was more or so like the first as the Warriors continued to be aggressive and dominate possession of the ball.
It didn't take long for the second goal to arrive because only six minutes into the second half, Obeid found himself wide open after a great play and pass from Quentin Hornung.
"Q gave me the perfect pass," Obeid said. "He always gives very good passes and I didn't think about it. Took my first touch with my right and I decided I was just going to shoot it hard with my left and it went in.
"I'm pretty happy with the result."
The Warriors had many more opportunities in the second half as they shot the ball 21 times putting the Bethesda goalkeeper to work.
On the other hand, Noah Schwengeler and Mathia Eriksen were barely challenged, with each goalkeeper recording one save for the Warriors.
Head Coach Randy Dodge shared his thoughts on the game afterward: "It was good to be able to go and compete and watch these guys play. It was also nice to be on the grass. We hadn't played on grass yet so getting the opportunity to come back and play at the Great Park was a lot of fun."
The Warriors played more aggressively in the second half which opened up more opportunities and shots on goal.
"Yeah, we outshot them in the second half," Dodge said. "What we started doing instead of playing in front of them we started getting behind and breaking a few lines.
"I just thought we were more attack-minded and when you're in attack it's not about possession, it's about possession to penetrate. In the second half, we did a really good job of creating some good opportunities."
Now the Warriors will switch their focus to Thursday's 7:00 PM game against Stanton University.
"We're going to have a recovery day and go over a few things with regards to our finishing," Dodge said. "We hit some great shots and put ourselves in great spots, if we weren't doing that we'd have bigger issues.
"We're getting in the right places, the ball will eventually roll our way."
Thursday's game against Stanton will be the first meeting between the programs.
Westcliff will enter the game with a 2-0 record this season.
In the last two games, they had a combined 10 goals and most importantly both were clean sheets.
