Feb. 18, 2004

Los Angeles, CA (Feb. 18) - The Loyola Marymount University men's soccer team opened its spring season with a 2-1 win over the University of British Columbia from Vancouver, Canada. Freshman Diego Souza and sophomore Joe Stoakley led the Lions with a goal each.

It was the third year in a row that LMU has opened the spring season with an international opponent.

The visitors from Canada wasted no time in opening the scoring as they broke the 0-0 score line with a goal at the 3:00 minute mark. The Lions were unable to clear defensively and UBC went on the board with a shot that slipped through a mass of bodies in the 18 yard box and found it's way into the far corner, beating Lion goalkeeper Shaun Kalnasy.

Souza tallied the first Lion goal at the 23:45 mark with a deft 11-yard chip from the right side of the penalty area. Souza took the pass from fellow freshman David Neimeyer and calmly finished the play over the charging UBC goalkeeper. Stoakley then provided the game winner less than 10 minutes later as he headed home a nice cross from Sean Rhynard. Not five minutes after the second Lion goal, LMU was unlucky to not go up 3-1 as a splendid combination between Matt Mejia and Armando Melendez went begging as Mejia's effort went wide left by inches.

The weather for the match was atypical for Southern California as the teams battled a steady drizzle and a temperature of about 55 degrees.

The Lion defense came up with an excellent second half as British Columbia applied a good amount of pressure in the second stanza, especially over the last 10 minutes of the match. Matt Kovar, Danny Williams and Jimmy Burling all turned in credible performances in front of Kalnasy.

The Lions will play the Los Angeles Galaxy in an exbition at Sullivan Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.

- GO LIONS -