NORTHRIDGE, Calif.—UC Irvine edged CSUN 2-1 in Big West men's soccer action Saturday night at Matador Soccer Field.
The home finale for the Matadors saw all the scoring occur in the first 45 minutes. In the 15th minute, Diego Otoya's attempt from in front was saved by Cooper Wenzel. The rebound came back out to Robert Mejia who put the ball away for his second goal of the season.
In the 28th minute, Mejia stole the ball from a CSUN defender, took three dribbles, and scored in front of the Matador net. David Diaz got CSUN on the board in the 33rd when took a Hector Villanueva pass and scored from 20 yards out for his second tally of the year.
The Anteaters were awarded a penalty kick 4:14 into the second half. Wenzel turned away Juan Barragan-Manzo. On the ensuing UC Irvine corner, Wenzel saved a Francesco Montanile attempt.
The Matadors threatened in a two-minute sequence that saw CSUN earn three corner kicks. The set pieces resulted in shots from Michael Arrington, Jamar Ricketts, and Kanata Furutani that were all blocked by the Anteaters' defense. A Jack Rhead bicycle kick from in front of Cody Aung was stopped by the UCI keeper. Aung made two more saves including one on a Dylan Gonzalez blast at the 84:33 mark.
A little over 90 seconds later, Gonzalez was booked for a straight red card, putting the Matadors a man down. With UC Irvine being whistled for three yellow cards in the final 4+ minutes, CSUN could not find the equalizer.
THE STATS UC Irvine outshot CSUN 17-15, as both teams recorded nine shots on goal. In his first career start, Aung made eight saves. Wenzel tied his career-high with seven saves. Both teams recorded eight corner kicks with 13 of them coming in the second half.
ACCORDING TO HEAD COACH TERRY DAVILA "It was a tough game tonight. It was a tale of two halves. We came back and got the equalizer after we made the mistake that led to UCI's second goal. It says a lot about our character. I'm happy about coming back after being down 2-0. We didn't fold, we did everything we could to tie the game up, but we just couldn't do it."
NOTES UCI improves to 4-11-1, 4-3 in the Big West and moved into a three-way tie for fourth in the conference with Sacramento State and Cal State Fullerton (12 points)…with 13 points, CSUN (7-5-4, 4-3-1), the Matadors are in third place in the league… before Saturday's match, the Matadors honored seniors Marvin Arias, Gonzalez, and Alex Lemus…at halftime, CSUNThe 2022 CSUN Men's Soccer Seniors. honored the Matadors' 2012 team which won the Big West championship and advanced to the NCAA Tournament...Saturday marked the 56th time CSUN and UCI played, the Matadors lead the all-time series 27-23-6.
UP NEXT CSUN (7-5-4, 4-3-1 Big West) travels to Cal State Fullerton (8-5-5, 3-2-3 Big West) next Saturday to conclude the regular season. Coverage on ESPN+ begins at 7 p.m.
