Plethora of flags hinder Aztecs’ momentum, prevent getting into rhythm By Dave Beck, Staff WriterIn a game that saw more cards than a Hallmark store, the San DiegoState men’s soccer team (2-9-1, 2-2 MPSF) was defeated by theUniversity of Denver (6-3-1, 3-1 MPSF) 2-1 Sunday.
During the course of the game, there were yellow cards tossedseemingly every couple of minutes, one being the first one of theseason for SDSU head coach Lev Kirshner. Since play is stopped everytime a card is issued, it also worked to slow down the pace of thegame to a crawl. However, the stoppages of time did not seem to havetoo much of an effect on the Aztecs.
“It does slow down the game a little bit,” freshman defenderFreddy McDonald said. “We have to play through them, though, and ifit’s a good foul, we’ll deal with it.”
The match featured two distinctly different halves of play- the first half was a scoreless battle that featured superbdefense. In the second half, however, three goals were knocked in.Unfortunately for the Aztecs, only one of them came from a member ofthe Red and Black.
The first goal of the half was a nice one knocked in by SDSUsenior forward Frank Caruso and assisted by junior midfielder ColterMcArdle and freshman midfielder David Dally at the 50:40 mark.
“I just knew that when I got the diagonal run that it was goingin,” Caruso said. “As long as you get the run, the goals are going tohappen.”
It would be all Pioneers after that, though, as midfielder MarkWellen slipped one in at the 52:00 mark to tie the game.
Then at the 70:07 mark, forward Kyle Christensen would send in thegame winner.
Even though it was another loss for SDSU, the team fought hard tothe end like it has all season.
“We fought very hard, and I was impressed with the charge to getthe go-ahead goal,” Kirshner said. “It was disappointing, though,because it was a very winnable game.”
SDSU will try to rebound from this loss and get some morein-conference victories under its belt when it makes a road trip nextweekend. The Aztecs will take on Sacramento State 4 p.m. Friday andthen will get right back to work against San Jose State 2 p.m. onSunday.
