Stockton, Calif. - In the conference opener for both teams, the Saint Mary's Gaels prevailed over the Pacific men's soccer team, 1-0, at Saint Mary's Stadium in Moraga, despite the Tigers holding a 6-5 advantage in shots on goal. Cory Schmidt's 70th minute strike proved to be the difference in the contest as the Gaels picked up their fourth win of the season. In defeat, Pacific falls to 1-10-0 (0-1 WCC) while the Gaels improve to 4-7-1 (1-0 WCC) after defending home field.

The Tigers fired the first shot of the contest in the 4th minute as Julio Cervantes fired a strike that Lucas Champenois saved. Pacific also owned the second shot of the contest as Tyson Fox fired a rocket on goal that Champenois also dealt with aptly. Adachi was not challenged with a shot on goal in the first half, as Pacific and Saint Mary's were tied in overall shots 4-4 going into the halftime break.

After a dangerous flurry of SMC shots in the 54th minute tested Adachi, Pacific had a similar sequence in the 57th minute. Colin Bettencourt's attempt was saved by Champenois and after regaining possession, Tristan Blackmon shot just wide of the goalmouth on a screamer that almost certainly would have given Pacific the lead if not for mere inches. Gaku Lange booted an attempt off of Champenois and saw the redirection find Blackmon yet again. Champenois made an outstanding diving save on the sophomore's attempt to deny the Tigers in a stretch of outstanding goalkeeping that included half of Champenois' six saves.

In the 70th minute of play after a through ball from Stephen Dougherty, Schmidt blasted a liner from 20 yards out, past Adachi and into the back of the net for the opening goal of the contest, putting the hosts ahead 1-0.

Yellow cards issued to Cervantes in the 71st and 79th minute left Pacific down a man for the final 11 minutes of regulation, hampering the Tiger attack. Blackmon unleashed a shot in the 81st minute and Spencer Vue also missed wide in the 85th before the Gaels were able to run out the clock, playing posession-minded in order to take home a 1-0 victory.

For the Tigers, Blackmon, Bettencourt and Cervantes all registered mult-shot contests. Josh Adachi made three saves in his 90 minutes of action, appearing in the conference opener and his first game since September 20th at UC Davis. Champenois finished with six saves while Doughtery and Carlo Eikani each had multi-shot contests for the homestanding Gaels.

Head Coach Ryan Jorden said following the final whistle, "Credit to our guys. It took a really great goal to beat us today. We created a numbers of chances but we weren't able to put ourselves in a position to dictate the game a little bit more. I think our competitiveness and ability today matched what Saint Mary's brought."

The Tigers will return to action with a two-game weekend road swing through the Bay Area, traveling to Negoesco Stadium in San Francisco for a 7:00 p.m. tilt under the lights on Friday and a 1:00 p.m. matinee at Santa Clara's Buck Shaw Stadium. Both contests will be streamed live via TheW.tv and will feature live stats available via PacificTigers.com.

For the latest on the Pacific Men's Soccer program, be sure to follow @PacificMSoccer on Twitter and @Pacific_Soccer on Instagram.