Sacramento State hands Titans first home loss of the season | Sports
In a game that was decided in the final seconds, Cal State Fullerton men’s soccer suffered their first home loss of the season, 1-0, against the Sacramento State Hornets on Saturday.
After Titans defender Mason Lamb committed a foul in the 90th minute, Hornets defender Genaro Alfaro kicked the ball into the penalty box toward defender Bryan Gutierrez, who headed the game-winning goal, leaving the home crowd in disbelief.
“It has to be better marking at the end, you have to be able to win the moments, and when those duels even when you’re in the final moments of the game until the final whistle, and we didn’t play through the final whistle,” said Titans head coach George Kuntz.
The Titans failed to capitalize on a plethora of scoring opportunities, shooting 30 shot attempts compared to Sacramento State’s five.
The Titans fall to 8-5-5 overall and 3-2-3 in conference play, dropping them to fifth in the Big West standings.
Titans midfielder Jessy Sotelo had an early shot on goal that went out the right side of the goal in the sixth minute.
Four minutes later, Titans midfielder Sebastian Cruz passed the ball to forward Reziq Banihani, whose header attempt went out on the right side of the goal.
The Titans continued their pursuit for a goal in the 12th minute with forward Julian Varela’s shot attempt outside the penalty box sailing above the crossbar.
The Titans turned toward Cruz, whose shot attempt was saved by Hornets goalkeeper Edgar Guerra in the 18th minute.
Hornets forward Dominic Vegaalban had an opportunity to put his team ahead in the 29th minute as he shot the ball from the left side of the field to the bottom right corner of the goal, but Titans goalkeeper Tetsuya Kadono anticipated the attempt to prevent a goal.
In the final seven minutes of the first half, the Titans could not convert their final two goal attempts from midfielders Erick Serrano and Sotelo.
As desperation to get on the scoreboard rose, CSUF’s offense continued applying pressure on the hornets’ backline as they attempted 20 shots in the second half.
In the 59th minute, the Titans missed five consecutive shots within a minute span, with four of the attempts coming from Cruz and Banihani.
As the game got closer to the final whistle, tensions rose between the two teams.
After Hornets midfielder Francisco Magana tackled Cruz in the final minute, Titans midfielder Justin Jovel got into an altercation with Vegaalban, who Jovel tripped, which led to Sacramento State’s game-winning set piece in the closing minute.
Kuntz stressed the importance of the Titans final game of the regular season and remained focused solely on their next opponent.
“We have a big game coming up in a week and that’s going to determine everything,” Kuntz said. “All we’re talking about is the next game.”
CSUF will host their final game of the season against Cal State Northridge Saturday at 7 pm