McMinnville, Ore. – The Beavers sustained their strong opening to the 2023 regular season Sunday morning with a dramatic 3-2 victory in a back-and-forth tilt at Linfield University.

Caltech wasted no time opening the scoring as sophomore Etienne Casanova buried the match's first goal in the seventh minute, his team's first shot on goal.

Linfield quickly replied with a penalty kick into the net a couple minutes later, but the Beavers would finish the first half with a 2-1 lead thanks to a goal from sophomore Wilson Duan. Solid defense limited the host Wildcats to just one shot on goal during the run of play in the first half, saved by first-year keeper Ethan Hamel.

The Wildcats equalized in the 70th minute following a slew of yellow cards issued by the referee, but the Beaver attackers continued peppering the opposition with shots toward goal. Finally Caltech broke the tie in the 84th minute on a brilliant set piece, sophomore Ishaan Mantripragada's corner kick feeding senior Rohan Iyer for the go-ahead goal. Caltech shut down the Linfield offense for the rest of the match, preventing a single shot and turning away a corner kick in the waning seconds.

"Our goal for this trip was to get two wins and have a lot of fun doing it, so mission accomplished," Assistant Coach Rockne DeCoster saidn. "Not only did we earn victories over two quality opponents, but we were able to learn a lot about ourselves and come closer together as a group. Now hopefully we can ride our momentum and continue to improve as we return to SoCal."

Head Coach Duncan Gillis, DeCoster and the Beavers will return to their home pitch on Wednesday, Sep. 6 to host Life Pacific University.