The Red Raiders dropped a tight and tough match up against second ranked Baker University Saturday 2-1. 

The Wildcats got on the scoreboard early off a volley from Richard Bakiaj from a cross from Lucas Mihomem in the 13th minute. The early goal was a culmination of a long possession for the Wildcats who saw a large amount of possession in the first half.

Baker earned their second on the night with under a minute left before halftime when Jordan Alonge headed a ball past Matt Scott off a counter attack. It put the Raiders in a seemingly big hole going into halftime. 

The Red Raiders rallied in the second half playing much more to their style of play after making some adjustments to the tough Wildcats. The Raiders saw more possession and were able to create some good chances out of that possession as well.

The effort was shown off by the Raiders throughout the second half and was highlighted by Alex Schussman's effort to challenge a ball in the Baker box and earned a foul while doing so. Tyler Limmer stepped up and put home the penalfy kick in the 71st minute making it a 2-1 game.

The Raiders kept pressing but could not find a chance that greatly challenged the keeper.

"I am really proud of the effort our guys displayed against Baker," commented head coach Dan Swier. "They are a fantastic team and despite being down 2-0 at halftime, our guys came out in the second half and battled hard to get back into it. The best teams punish their opponents' mistakes and Baker did that to us on their second goal. We didn't put the ball in the back of the net when we had good scoring chances in the first half and that was the difference in the game.  That said, we certainly got better tonight; and that's the objective when playing top competition in non-conference play."

The Red Raiders travel to California to take on Marymount California University and La Sierra University before they open up conference play on September 19th.