PORTLAND, Ore. – The California men's soccer team could not sustain the success of its previous road game Friday night in Portland, where the Golden Bears lost to the Pilots 2-0 at Merlo Field.
 
Cal – which upset then-No. 1 Pitt last Friday in Pennsylvania – saw its record fall to 4-6-2 in the City of Roses. Portland improved to 3-4-6 after the nonconference game.
 
With forward Nonso Adimabua – the ACC Offensive Player of the Week last week for his goal at Pitt – unavailable at Portland, the Bears still outshot the Pilots 14-13. Despite a 5-4 shots disadvantage and a 0-0 scoreline in the first half, Cal looked like the better team, forcing two saves out of Portland goalkeeper Kash Oladapo on shots by Malcolm Zalayet in the 16th minute and Gaku Nishimura in the 39th minute. On a counterattack in the 34th minute, Cal goalkeeper Marco Brougher – the ACC Defensive Player of the Week after his seven-save performance at Pitt – made his lone save of the first half on a low shot by Muslim Umar.
 
Cal looked to be on the front foot in the second half, outshooting Portland 8-4 before the first goal. In one sequence after a Cal corner kick in the 51st minute, the Bears were stymied after three good chances – a Kevin Carmichael shot from seven yards that was blocked, a Malcolm Zalayet shot from eight yards that was blocked and a Giancarlo Mota shot from the top of the box that Oladapo saved.
 
But in the 74th minute, the Pilots took a 1-0 lead when Joe Highfield headed in a cross by Diego Rosas, with Sebastian Nava also earning an assist. Ten minutes later, Umar scored off another Nava assist to make the Cal deficit 2-0.
 
Neither team recorded a shot the rest of the way.
 
"I thought the first half was okay," Cal head coach Leonard Griffin said. "We created some decent chances. At the end of the day we could've been more aggressive going to goal. Portland is a good transition team and caught us a couple times. It was not our night tonight. We have three more regular-season games to finish strong."
 
Cal returns to Berkeley to host Saint Mary's in another nonconference game Tuesday before hosting ACC opponent Notre Dame on Oct. 27 in the Bears' regular-season home finale. Cal plays at Stanford on Nov. 1 in the last game of the regular season.
 
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