The San Diego State men’s soccer team opened their Pac-12 Conference season with a 1-0 loss against the University of California on Thursday night at the SDSU Sports Deck.
Cal midfielder Evan Davila scored in the 21st minute, which snapped the No. 17 Aztecs (6-1-1, 0-1-0 Pac-12) streak of holding opponents scoreless since the start of the season.
There was a huge issue from the start of the match with the game getting physical and players starting arguments with one another.
The Aztecs committed 11 fouls, while the Golden Bears committed 17 fouls. Cal (4-2-3, 1-0-0 Pac-12) was also booked for two yellow cards, which were given to midfielders Juan Martinez in the 8th minute and Kai Djerbaka in the 46th minute.
Head coach Ryan Hopkins was upset about how the match was officiated.
“We get in behind teams and we get dragged down, we get kicked, we get fouled, they kick the ball away and the refs do nothing,” Hopkins said. “The job of the referees is to protect the players… it’s frustrating because we felt like tonight they deliberately went out there and tried to stop us with physical play.”
With the match being so physical, defender Reid Fisher credited how Cal came out to play.
“Cal came out and played a really good game, they obviously got the job done,” Fisher said. “I think in the first half we came out and we struggled a little bit, tactically we weren’t as good as we’ve usually been this year… (Cal) capitalized off the one chance they got and we didn’t so that was just kind of a slim margin of the game.”
The Golden Bears controlled play in the first half of the match, but slowly during the second half, the Aztecs changed up their routine and started going in for shots.
After the goal by Davila, Hopkins told his team at halftime to just keep on going and gave them the reality of what they had to do to keep up with Cal.
“Pac-12 is another beast, it’s another animal and there’s going to be ups and downs to it,” Hopkins said. “I thought that the guys responded brilliantly from that and I thought the next 70 minutes were completely ours.”
The Aztecs dominated offensively in the second half, outshooting the Golden Bears 6-5 and 14-11 for the match.
“I think (by) just starting the game better, I think that in every aspect of the game we can do a little bit better to get a result,” Fisher said.
Both Hopkins and Fisher are hoping to come in brand new on Sunday against a top-ranked opponent.
“I think the biggest thing is just mentality, especially when you take your first loss like that,” Hopkins said. “Stanford is going to be in here fighting for points… they’re fighting for their Pac-12 Championship dreams just like we are, so it’s going to be a big performance.”
The SDSU men’s soccer team will play against No. 6 Stanford at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 1 at the SDSU Sports Deck, following the SDSU women’s soccer match against Colorado College.
“We learned how to deal with a loss… obviously our goal is to win the Pac-12, we think we have the team to do it this year,” Fisher said.
