Men’s soccer rebounds after tough loss
September 28, 2016
On Sept. 23, the Cal State East Bay men’s soccer team fell to Sonoma State (3-2-3 overall, 3-1 conference). This was the Pioneers’ third loss in a row. Fortunately, the team was able to bounce back on Sunday and get their first conference win of the season against Humboldt State (3-4-1 overall, 1-3 conference).
East Bay looked sharp in the beginning of their first game of the weekend against Sonoma, when senior forward Steffen Sauer took advantage of Sonoma’s goalkeeper coming out of the net, giving the Pioneers a 1-0 lead in the first minute of the game and Sauer his first goal of the season.
The lead did not last long though, and the Seawolves came back seven minutes later when senior forward Armando Coronel scored a goal into the top right hand corner of the net, tying the game.
Sonoma did not stop there. In the 30th minute, the Seawolves were fouled and freshman forward Maury Lopez took the kick, scoring it in the bottom left corner of the goal to give the Sonoma the lead.
The Pioneers were still in the game going into halftime only down one, but Sonoma got the best of them and maintained control in the second half. In the 82nd minute, junior Andrew Ogilvy took a shot from the left side of the field and landed it into the far right right post, sealing the win for the Seawolves at 3-1.
“We were not executing our chances well enough,” said Sauer. “Especially in the first half. We need to score more goals; when you score goals it makes the difference. If we don’t, we cannot win.”
The men shook off the loss and focused on the next game against Humboldt State University and were able to capture their first win of conference play.
East Bay had a shaky start as Humboldt took the lead and scored in the 23rd minute.
Junior midfielder and forward Johan Muliadi, assisted by freshman midfielder Jason Schmidt, kicked it over the goalkeeper into the top right corner of the box. The Pioneers did not let the goal put them down.
“We have to keep doing what we are good at, such as playing the ball wide and getting in crosses,” said Sauer. “It can put us at an advantage for our future games.”
The men trailed up until the 75th minute when senior forward Preston Hale scored off of a save made by Humboldt’s goalkeeper, putting the ball into the right corner.
The goal put the game at a tie and sent the teams to overtime.
Four minutes into overtime, the Pioneers were fouled and senior CSUEB midfielder Victor Calderon took the free kick, which landed right in the bottom left corner, giving the Pioneers the 2-1 golden goal win, just as the women’s soccer team did before them.
“Throughout overtime it did not really matter who scored the goal, I just wanted to win,” said Calderon.
The Pioneers face Santa Cruz at home on Friday in a nonconference game.
