Des Moines, Iowa - The Pacific men's soccer opened the season on the road at Drake, and fell 2-1 despite a second half goal from Gaku Lange. The Bulldogs converted a penalty kick in the 81st minute for the game-winning goal.

The Tigers found themselves out-shot 13-4 early in the second half when Lange collected and ran in on a breakaway. The sophomore from Komoro, Japan finished to put Pacific in the lead in the 54th minute.

The Bulldogs answered back with a goal in the 70th minute from Alex Prusa. Gabe Edel's shot was stopped by Pacific goalkeeper Curtis Goldsmith, but Prusa - no relation to the Tigers' Alec Prusa - was there to put in the rebound and knot the match at 1-1.

The game carried on level until the 81st minute when the Bulldogs were handed a penalty kick off a wild service across the top of the box. Alec Barlett converted the attempt for his first goal of the year to put Drake out in front.

The Tigers tried to rally, putting a flurry of shots on Drake goalkeeper Darrin MacLeod. MacLeod saved Lange's header in the 85th inure, and turned away a shot by Christian Aldama in the 89th minute. Julio Cervantes had a shot blocked just seconds later and the Bulldogs defended a corner kick before clearing the ball deep into Tiger territory to run out the clock.

"Across the board, we had some great performances. I was really pleased with our effort tonight," head coach Ryan Jorden said. "The tremendous amount of positives even though we weren't able to get the result we wanted. We did a really good job to control tempo. After taking the lead and then for a while after that. We hoped we could have gotten that second goal and taken command of the game. That was a situation we didn't find ourselves in last year, holding a one-goal advantage late. We need to grow in our ability to manage the game, especially from out in front."

Goldsmith registered three saves in goal for the Tigers while Josh Adachi recorded three saves early in the contest before coming out following a collision in the box. MacLeod finished with a half dozen saves in the cage for Drake. The Bulldogs held a 23-10 advantage in total shots, but only a 8-7 edge in shots on goal.

"Josh had a number of tremendous saves early in the match," Jorden added. "And then Curtis really answered the call tonight, coming off the bench in his stead and putting up some big saves."

Drake improves to 1-0 on the season. Pacific falls to 1-0 on the young season, and remain the midwest for a 11 am kick-off at Omaha. The Mavericks offer a live stream of the game, behind a pay wall.

 

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