The No. 18 San Diego State men’s soccer team nearly tied a record in their 12-0 win against Life Pacific on Monday night at the SDSU Sports Deck.
An early goal by Seth Clark, with assists from Rommee Jaridly and Noah Cretier in the fourth minute, set the flow for the rest of the way for the Aztecs (5-0-1). SDSU came within a goal of tying the program record of 13 goals in a match.
“Our team has been really good coming out to start the game,” said head coach Ryan Hopkins. “That’s maybe three games in a row we scored in the first four or five minutes and it’s something we really pride ourselves on in those critical moments.”
The Aztecs scored six times in the first half, as after Clark’s first goal, he scored another in the eighth minute, assisted by Alexander Levengood.
In the 32nd minute, Austin Brummett scored the third goal with an assist from Cretier. The fourth goal was made by Christian Engmann, assisted by Jules Anderson in the 36th minute.
“It’s a nice experience, especially a game like this coming off of an injury,” Engmann said. “This was good just to play and get an opportunity to play with everybody.”
Terence Okoeguale scored the fifth goal of the match with an assist by Lorenzo Hernandez in the 41st minute. Nearly three minutes later, Hernandez scored the last goal before halftime.
After Engmann’s goal, coach Hopkins began taking out his starters and getting players from the bench a chance to play against the Warriors (1-6-1), who compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
“We really like the depth that we have in our team… we think we have a lot of players that can really help us at any point in the season,” Hopkins said. “It’s just keeping everybody sharp and giving everybody opportunities… we really need to figure out those 15 or 16 players that can really be there day-in and day-out once we get to Pac-12 play.”
During the second half the Aztecs scored six more goals, with Levengood scoring off an assist by Jaridly in the 48th minute. SDSU scored three goals in a five minute stretch, with Engmann scoring once and Okoeguale twice off assists by Clark, Hernandez and Owen Zaldivar between the 63rd and 68th minutes.
“From the first minute on, we showed what we can do — we didn’t stop and wanted to score and wanted to keep the clean sheet,” Okoeguale said. “I feel like the togetherness in this group is very special.”
Ethan Zamora scored from Javi Camargo in the 82nd minute, then Hernandez scored off a feed by Levengood in the 86th minute for the final goal.
SDSU had 20 of its 27 players on the roster get the opportunity to shine on the field in the match. Twelve players had at least a point while 14 attempted a shot. The Aztecs put 20 of their 40 shot attempts on goal and allowed two Warriors shots in the match.
“Everyone is leaving this game confident; we’re more as a team,” Engmann said.
The SDSU men’s soccer team returns for another home match against Utah Tech at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 18 at the SDSU Sports Deck. It will be the last non-conference game of the season for the Aztecs.
