MEN’S SOCCER — The UCSD men’s soccer team traveled to Cal State Stanislaus on Oct. 10 looking to get back on track after a three-game winless streak.
Unfortunately, the Tritons were unable to overcome poor playing conditions and an early deficit, falling 1-0 on the road. The loss dropped the Tritons’ overall record to 6-4-2 and their conference record to 3-4-2. The loss leaves UCSD in fourth place in the California Collegiate Athletic Association South Division with 11 points, trailing leaders Cal State Los Angeles, who sit atop the table with 22 points.
The Warriors got on the board quickly, scoring the lone goal of the match during the 11th minute of play. Warrior defender Trevor Grimbley won a header at midfield, playing the ball into Triton territory, where forward Jose Velasquez was able to squeeze a goal between the legs of normally reliable senior goalkeeper Peter Akman. While the goal may not have been pretty, the Warrior defense made it stand up and secured three points for the home side. The Warriors’ win looks even more impressive considering Cal State Stanislaus was playing a man down for over 30 minutes after defender Thomas Janz was hit with a red card.
UCSD has now gone four matches and over 400 minutes of play without posting a goal. The frustration has been magnified due to the fact that the offense has looked much cleaner over the last several matches. The Tritons have created their share of chances, outshooting the Warriors by a mark of 14-9. However, none of that mattered for the Tritons as they were unable to put the ball in the net for the fourth straight match. The Tritons will need to score goals in bunches in their upcoming games if they hope to make a push for a spot in the conference tournament.
Even though head coach John Pascale was proud of the way his team played against the Warriors, he pointed to execution problems as the cause of the Tritons’ downfall.
“We pretty much had control for most of the game but just couldn’t put one away,” he said. “We had the ball in their end for large portions of the game but had bad execution in front of the goal.”
Senior forward Tommy Caplan agreed that the Tritons will need to do a better job attacking on offense if they want to score goals going forward.
“We need to be a little more focused in the offensive third,” the Triton captain said. “It seems like we get a little nervous and have trouble executing plays.”
After starting the season with five wins and a draw in their first six matches, the Tritons have fallen on hard times, winning only one of their last six games. UCSD has been outscored 9-3 over this period, with all three of those goals coming in a 3-0 dismantling of Cal State San Bernardino on Sept. 28 at home.
“I know they will bounce back,” Pascale said. “They know it’s all about giving their best and as long as they do that, win, lose or draw, we can be happy with ourselves. It is a good group of guys and we will come out against Chico State and give our all. Everybody worked as hard as they could today, but unfortunately it didn’t go our way.”
The Tritons continued their road trip on Oct. 12 against No. 17 Chico State University, but scores were unavailable as of press time. The squad will travel to No. 9 Cal State Dominguez Hills on Oct. 15 before returning to Triton Soccer Field to take on No. 5 Cal State Los Angeles on Oct. 19 and Seattle Pacific University on Oct. 25.
