After its 3-1 loss to Sonoma State on Nov. 4 in the California Collegiate Athletic Association playoffs, the No. 19 UCSD men’s soccer team’s season is now in the hands of the NCAA.
“We had lots of scoring chances and played really well, but [Sonoma State] had some lucky goals that forced us to come from behind,” UCSD senior goalkeeper Edward Ruhland said.
The loss dropped the Tritons to 11-5-2 on the season and 8-5-2 in CCAA league play, while the Seawolves advanced to the Nov. 6 Championship game.
The rout was the first time in 2005 that UCSD had surrendered more than two goals in a match.
Sonoma State dominated the first half, with the Seawolves’ Eric Larson giving his team’s offense a jump-start.
Assisted by a strategic pass from Steve Browne, Larson blasted the ball low to beat Ruhland at the 36-minute, 24-second mark to seize a 1-0 head start.
The Seawolves’ second goal came off the foot of David Seidel after he made an open-field run and beat Ruhland on a one-on-one breakaway opportunity in the 86th minute to give Sonoma the 2-0 lead.
Determined not to concede the game easily, however, the Tritons attempted a belated comeback.
“[Sonoma State] did not have such a great defense,” Ruhland said.
Sophomore Pat Kelly took advantage of Sonoma State’s weak defense and notched his third goal of the season, cutting the Seawolves’ advantage to one goal after he beat Sonoma State junior goalkeeper Clark Rupp at the 88:06 mark.
Interestingly, and perhaps aided by Sonoma State’s traditionally subpar defense, Kelly was previously responsible for the sole goal in UCSD’s 1-0 victory at Sonoma State earlier in the year.
At a crucial corner kick, UCSD head coach Derek Armstrong switched out the Tritons’ goalkeeper, and put in freshman Luis Salazar as an extra man on the attack.
However, the substitution backfired.
Larson netted his second goal of the game after he was able to clear the corner kick, scoring an empty-net goal with only 40 seconds left in the game to clinch the decisive 3-1 triumph over the Tritons.
“In the second half, we pushed our defenders forward to the midfield to try to create better offensive opportunities,” Ruhland said. “[Sonoma State] made lots of threats to the goal in the second half.”
In almost every statistical category, the match was extremely close.
While each team managed to make three saves in the contest, Sonoma State out-shot the Tritons by a 12-10 margin.
The Seawolves took the biggest margin over the Tritons in securing corner kicks. Sonoma State had seven free kicks from the corner compared to only one for the Tritons.
The Seawolves will now face the winner of the second semifinal match in Turlock, Calif., between Cal State Dominguez Hills and Cal State San Bernardino, with the winner taking home the CCAA Championship title.
UCSD’s NCAA postseason fate is still undetermined. The participants for the NCAA Tournament will be announced on Nov. 7.
The 24-team tournament will feature three teams from each of the eight regions.
Earlier last week, six players from the Tritons were selected for the All-CCAA teams.
Seniors Matt Davey and Edward Ruhland were awarded First-Team honors.
On the Second Team were freshman Devon Cook and junior Matt Horne, who helped anchor a stingy Triton defensive unit this season, along with senior Jon Krupansky.
Junior Chase Douglas earned his second-straight All-CCAA Honorable Mention. Joining Douglas on the Honorable Mention squad were junior Dustin Tannenhaus and senior Kevin Murray.
