The San Diego State men’s soccer team took down another top-25 foe on Sunday, beating the No. 19 University of Denver Pioneers 4-3 in a thrilling contest.
Freshman forward David Olsen’s goal in the 63rd minute broke a 3-3 deadlock as SDSU held on for its third win a row, and the second straight victory against a ranked team after Friday’s win against No. 25 Clemson University .
The four goals for the Aztecs came on just five shots on target.
“We had four good moments for ourselves in the attacking end. (We were) very clinical in our finishing,” head Coach Lev Kirshner said.
The Aztecs scored first in what would be an entertaining first half as Olsen scored in the 10th minute from 10 yards away off a neat pass by sophomore midfielder Mark Revell.
Denver had a free kick 10 minutes later that wasn’t cleared away by the Aztecs and Denver’s junior midfielder Karsten Hanlin crossed the ball to freshman forward Cole Stevenson to make the score 1-1.
That goal was the start of a blistering next 10 minutes that included three goals, two of them by SDSU.
Aztecs’ sophomore forward Forrayah Bass cut in from the right side and delivered a perfect cross, which freshman midfielder Jeff Rhodes headed in for a 2-1 lead.
SDSU had to deal with some pressure put on by Denver, but the Aztecs were able to clear the ball away time and time again.
One clearance found its way to freshman forward Donald Benamna, who stole the ball from a defender, sprinted down the right side and passed to fellow freshman Thom Van den Berg, who scored his first goal of the season to make it 3-1 Aztecs.
But the Pioneers came right back five minutes later through sophomore Eric Kronenberg’s brilliant breakaway as he chipped the ball over SDSU’s freshman goalkeeper Adam Allmaras from 15 yards away.
The Aztecs’ defense came undone from another dead ball situation. Junior midfielder Jordan Schweitzer sent a powerful header past Allmaras in senior forward Teddy Mullin’s corner kick to make it 3-3 at halftime.
“I just think that both teams were a little loose in their defending and compactness,” Kirshner said. “Both teams had very emotional games on Friday.”
The Pioneers dominated the first 15 minutes of the second half, but Olsen produced another fine effort to grab the decisive goal, his third in two games. Bass was once again the provider, crossing from the left for his second assist.
Olsen took the ball down inside the penalty area, dribbled and smacked a low shot past Denver’s sophomore goalkeeper Ryan Massey.
A chippy 28 minutes followed, with the referee having to stop the game multiple times to get the players under control.
The Aztecs also had to cope with Denver’s aggressive playing style, which was mainly responsible for the seven yellow cards shared between the two sides on Sunday.
“Definitely in the second half they’d try and rough us up a little bit, get in on tackles, get us frustrated so that we collapse on ourselves,” senior defender and captain Evyn Hewett said. “But we didn’t do that. We stuck together and it really helped us get that win.”
The Aztecs fended off Denver’s attacks and the game was essentially wrapped up with eight seconds to go when Hanlin got his second yellow card, resulting in his ejection.
Next up is Wright State University at 7 p.m. on Friday at the Sports Deck, a rematch of last year’s contest, which Wright State won 3-2.
