When Catholic college powerhouses Loyola and Cathedral meet of their annual early season soccer showdown, the power is palpable and tensions are excessive. The playoffs are nonetheless months away, but each side deal with the sport as if a title is on the road.
Tuesday’s conflict noticed the visiting Cubs prevail 2-0 on a pair of targets by striker Josh Gallagher.
Gallagher’s first tally got here within the fifteenth minute after he slipped previous the again line and fired a low drive that skipped between the legs of goalkeeper Maizcer Villalobos. That allowed Loyola to be aggressive for the rest of the half realizing it had a lead.
“It was a great team effort,” stated Gallagher, whose group avenged a 4-1 loss to the Phantoms final December.
Loyola’s Luke Stenberg tries to steal the ball from Cathedral’s Jonathan Villamontes on Tuesday.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Occasions)
Cathedral pressed exhausting for an equalizer within the closing 40 minutes, however senior goalkeeper Chris Stillwell stood tall for the guests, denying a number of high quality probabilities from shut vary.
After Cathedral ahead Jonathan Villamontes’ high-arching shot hit the crossbar with quarter-hour to go, Loyola tightened its protection and in the end capitalized on a set piece to attain the all-important insurance coverage objective when Gallagher headed house a throw-in from Jack Nixon previous Cathedral’s different keeper, Gael Bustos, with underneath 5 minutes left.
“It feels really good — it’s been awhile since we beat them,” Loyola coach Chris Walter stated. “We have a lot of room to get better, but that’s a good team and we did a good job shutting them out.”
Cathedral beat its Los Angeles neighbor 4-1 within the championship sport of the Southern California Division I regional in 2020. Lately the rivalry has been dubbed the “Downtown World Cup.”
Loyola improved to 2-0-1, whereas host Cathedral dropped to 1-1, however each groups know they might see one another once more when the postseason rolls round.
