SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The Pacific Lutheran University men's soccer team held a huge statistical advantage but was undone by a pair of early shots as host University of California Santa Cruz slithered away with the 2-0 victory on Friday evening.
 
The host Banana Slugs (3-2) made the most of its limited chances, scoring goals on their only two shot attempts. UCSC's James Allison opened the scoring in the 13th minute while Gabriel Palomares doubled the Slug lead just under nine minutes later.  
 
The Lutes (2-3) held a commanding 9-2 edge in shots, including a 3-2 advantage in shots on frame. Pacific Lutheran additionally took six of the eight corner kicks in the 90-minute non-conference affair.
 
Matt Koczan, Zak Gregg, and Jaisen Zurfluh all ripped off shots on goal that were scooped up by UCSC goalkeeper Andrew Pimentel who tallied the clean sheet after keeping the Lutes at bay for 90 minutes.
 
"Even though the result wasn't good, there were some good things we did in the game," said Head Coach John Yorke. "Mistakes continue to hurt us and we're repeating the same costly errors. We'll continue to work on cleaning those things up but I'm proud of the guys and their efforts."
 
PLU returns to the pitch on Sunday, facing Chapman University at 11 a.m. in the squad's final match before opening its Northwest Conference title defense the following weekend.