GEORGETOWN, Texas — Southwestern men's soccer battled the No. 2 team in the nation to a standstill for a half but ultimately fell short in a 5-2 loss to the Trinity Tigers.
Trinity struck first when Jesus Veloz found an angle from the outskirts of the 18-yard box, sending the ball from right to left of a diving Jack Viles into the back of the net.
Southwestern scored the equalizer on a free kick from midfield. Defender Luke Malone triggered the play, finding Nathaniel Blake in the left corner in perfect stride off one bounce, who delivered a soft, high-arching pass just in front of the penalty box to Fernando Garduno-Jaramilo.
Garduno-Jaramilo played the ball beautifully, getting it to the ground with a perfect first touch and sending it flying past Trinity keeper Austin Wilman off one bounce to the back, left corner of the net.
A few minutes later, the Pirates took a brief lead when midfielder Winston Hebert took the ball from Trinity's Joseph Kuri and led Caleb Allen on the hit-ahead pass. Allen sprinted up the field and escaped one Trinity slide tackle, putting the ball into space for Jackson DeHaven, who sent the ball booming into the net on the first touch.
Trinity tied the game when Jack Eubank overshot Philip Duenez on the cross but found the foot of Southwestern's Malone, scoring an own goal.
The Tigers scored the second half's first goal on a quick-hitting counter that ended with Hunter Cain splitting two defenders and scoring the goal off Viles. Trinity added another goal less than a minute later, with Cain assisting Fraser Burns for the score.
Trinity added a fifth goal on a pass from Chen Adjei to Kyle Davis for the final score.
Both sides were relatively equal with the number of opportunities. Trinity had a slight edge in shots (14-12) and corner kicks (6-5). Trinity had three saves to Southwestern's two.
With the loss, Southwestern drops to 6-2-3, including 1-1-1 in conference play. Trinity remains undefeated at 11-0 with a 3-0 conference record. Southwestern will hit the road next week for a game at Centenary on Friday and a contest with St. Thomas on Sunday.