The San Diego State Men’s soccer team lost 1-0 against Oregon State on Thursday, Oct. 26 at the SDSU Sports Deck.
Both teams battled offensively and defensively in the first half, with the result of neither team scoring before the half ended.
The Aztecs (6-4-4, 0-4-2 Pac-12 Conference) only attempted two shots in the first half while the Beavers (7-5-3, 4-1-3) had attempted one. By the end of the match, the Beavers outnumbered the Aztecs on total attempted shots with Beavers ending up with 10 and the Aztecs with six.
Forward Logan Farrington scored for the Beavers on the 58th minute mark, giving Oregon State the only goal of the match.
“I think that one really hurts (because) I feel like we played well,” said head coach Ryan Hopkins. “We can’t give big time players those kinds of chances and that’s the tight margins in the Pac-12. It ends up coming down to one play pretty often and credit to (Farrington).”
The match was quite physical with the Aztecs fouling 16 times, while the Beavers fouling 28 times. Besides the fouling, both teams combined earned six yellow cards, with the Aztecs earning four yellow cards and Beavers with two yellow cards.
Defender Reid Sproat said that the Aztecs delivered a better outcome than when they played at UCLA on Oct. 20 when they lost against the Bruins 2-1.
“I think we had a good response from our last game at UCLA,” Sproat said. “I think we put together 70 to 80 minutes of our brand of soccer that we want to play, but ultimately, we fell short for those 10 to 15 minutes and we got punished.”
With the Scarlet and Black having four games left (including two home and two away), the Aztecs will be pressured in competition as they have a tournament on the line.
“You know, for us, we have everything to play for,” Sproat said. “We’ve got to go out there and we’ve got to make the NCAA Tournament. (At the) end of the day, we have four opportunities to win two games and there’s no excuses. If we don’t do it, we’re not going to make the tournament, so it’s up to us.”
The Aztecs will host the University of Washington at the SDSU Sports Deck on Sunday, Oct. 29 at 3 p.m.
“We’re dealing with a lot of adversity, and I think the guy’s response to that adversity has been very good,” Sproat said. “The results haven’t been coming our way, but we’ve got to win two more games, so I know the boys are going to keep their heads (up) and we have four more opportunities.”
