BALTIMORE, Md. --- UC Irvine men's soccer finished their weekend on the East Coast with an early-afternoon loss, 2-0, to preseason Patriot League favorites Loyola Maryland at Ridley Athletic Complex.

FIRST HALF FORTRESS
The sides led with their defenses in the first 45 minutes giving up just five shots in total. The Anteaters (0-2) managed three shots with all coming on frame. Lawrence Yamaguchi peppered Loyola Maryland (1-0) keeper, Chase Vosvick, twice while Kwabena Boateng put a header on frame from a corner.

UCI's backline did not allow any shots until the 40th minute, and the two shots allowed were blocked before getting close to frame leaving the sides tied at 0-0 heading back to the locker rooms.

OFF TO THE RACES
The Greyhounds found their legs early in the second half firing up some shots, and then got one to count in the 52nd minute. A corner whipped in from Justin Ingram found a leaping Matthew Lala to head home the opener and put UCI behind, 1-0.

The match opened up a bit on either side until the lead stretched to 2-0 for the Greyhounds in the 70th minute. An Anteater turnover in their defensive third allowed Kelan Swales to drive and chip a cross to Ingram at the penalty spot who chipped his own ball into the net for Loyola Maryland.

FINAL SCORE: LOYOLA MARYLAND 2, UC IRVINE 0
The defenses still held tough for the most part with just 15 shots total in the match. After his 10-save effort on Friday, Gordon Botterill came back with two saves on Sunday. Vosvick for LMD stopped four Anteater shots.

The 'Eaters nearly cut the deficit in half in the final minutes just like against Georgetown with a free kick outside the box once again from Juan Barragan-Manzo. His hit was deflected by the wall and helped along by the Anteater attack scoring the goal, but it was negated by an offside call.

"Another hard match on the road against a good opponent," noted head coach Yossi Raz. "It exposed some areas we still need to improve in. We made a few immature decisions that ultimately cost us dearly, but we have seen an improvement from Friday which is key at this stage of the season. We look forward to coming back home and fixing a few aspects of our game in order to play quality football in our home opener on Friday."

BACK TO CALI
The 'Eaters return to Southern California for their next few matches starting Friday night, August 3, with the home opener and a tough test in the UCLA Bruins kicking off at 7:00 p.m.