The UCSD men’s soccer team continued to struggle last week when it dropped two more California Collegiate Athletic Association matches. The team fell 1-0 in each of the contests.
The Tritons, who are 1-5 in the CCAA and 1-7 overall this year, began the week on the road with a match against unbeaten Sonoma State on Sept. 17 at Cossack Field.
Things went awry for UCSD early when Cossacks’ freshman Brandon Boone took a feed from midfielder Robert Juhler and pounded home the eventual game-winner.
The opportunity was created by a steal at the midfield stripe by Sonoma State midfielder Chris Daly, who passed it to Juhler to set up the goal.
The Tritons had a chance to get back into the game when Juhler was assessed a questionable red card just minutes after the goal, giving UCSD a one-man advantage.
The gift would not last very long, however, because Triton Derek Orchard was given a red card less than a minute later for pushing Cossack Brian Coyne in the back.
“”That card on him [Juhler] could have cost us big today and now we don’t have him for the Seattle Pacific game,”” stated Sonoma State head coach Marcus Ziemer. “”But everybody stepped it up, especially [Thomas] Corwin at midfield, and we got the win.””
UCSD had two opportunities late in the second half with shots from Sean Summers and Ali Managhebi, but Cossacks goalkeeper Matt Bernard snagged them both to preserve the one-goal victory.
Nick Tarantino had five saves for the Tritons.
UCSD returned to RIMAC field Sept. 21 to host top-ranked California State University Dominguez Hills, who handed the Tritons their second one-goal loss of the week.
The only goal of the game came at the 77:16 mark when Toros senior midfielder and leading scorer Sean Lockhart pounded home a medium-range goal off of a Gabriel Valencia assist.
Triton goalie Ryan Weirich was otherwise phenomenal in the net for UCSD, collecting seven saves in the loss.
Cal State Dominguez Hills’ goalie needed to make only two saves in the game to earn the shutout.
The Tritons will return to action Sept. 28 against CCAA rival UC Davis. The match begins at 4:30 p.m. at Triton Soccer Stadium.
