Photo Courtesy of Santa Clarita Storm Soccer Club

Riverside, CA – After three weeks of being idle the Santa Clarita Storm failed to live up to expectations on Sunday evening in Riverside. Faced with pressure from Deportivo Coras U.S.A U23, the Storm lost the opening game of their second round fixture in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) Admiral Cup 4-1.

The result was a setback for the Storm as they will need to win big while not giving up any goals to DCU to keep their cup dreams alive as away goals have more value.

On the road the Storm opened the match dominating scoring in the 17th minute when Zach Klindworth (Master’s College) passed to Brett Croft (Master’s College) who made quick work of a poor defensive formation to put the ball in the back of the net.

It did not take long for DCU to regain their form, scoring a tying goal in the 29th minute, sending the game into halftime tied. The Storm opened second half with no pressure playing shambolic defense giving up the middle of the field to the DCU attack. In the 60^th minute DCU began to hint at their dominance by taking a lead of 1-2 from a corner the Storm keeper Kyle Cunningham (Master’s College) could not stop. It did not take long for the Storm to show poorer defending as DCU earned a penalty kick eight minutes later on the vulnerable Storm side that was reeling. DCU converted the goal in the 68th minute making the score 1-3 and kicking off the rout the Storm.

             With 15 minutes left, in a match dominated by DCU the Storm midfield was besieged again giving up the last goal in the 75th minute with the Storm side demoralized after being swarmed upon by DCU. The mid field was controlled by DCU as they seemed to be a step quicker than the drained Storm side. The DCU side stayed on top of the Storm applying the pressure getting one step closer to playing in the 3rd round fixture.

The Storm and DCU will square off again on April the 19th hosted by Golden Valley High School when DCU travels to Santa Clarita for the final game of their 2nd round fixture with kickoff at 4pm. For ticket information head to http://www.santaclaritastorm.com/