SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's soccer team captured its first-ever victory in the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) in style, taking down previously undefeated Stanislaus State 3-0 on Friday afternoon at The Cougar Den.
Louie Farfan,
Dustin Scibilia and
Zach Olow scored in the first half and
Landon Sherwood made five saves to secure the team's third clean sheet this season. CSUSM improves to 3-2-2 overall and 1-1-1 in CCAA play.
Stan State, which won its first seven contests of 2015, drops to 7-1, 2-1 CCAA.
"This was a great result and I thought we played outstanding in the first half, possibly the best we've played all season long," said CSUSM head coach
Ron Pulvers. "The goals were really top class and the kind of scores you dream of. I would have liked to finish the game a little stronger, but hopefully we'll be playing in front more this season and we'll see some improvement."
Farfan put the Cougars on the front foot in the 29
th minute. After a long free kick from
Oscar Gonzalez, the ball careened towards the net off a defender's head. Farfan was there to pounce on it and buried it inside the near post from the right side.
The junior midfielder has scored in three straight matches and leads the Cougars with four on the season.
Moments later, Stan St.'s Ramiro Ceja got in behind the Cougar back-line and it looked as if he'd most certainly score. However, instead of slotting it, he took a rip towards the corner only to be denied by Sherwood at the penalty spot.
In the 36
th minute, the Cougars built from the back before playing it out to the left for Olow. Meanwhile, left-back
Parker Radford was making an over-lapping run down the sideline and was rewarded for his hard work with a nicely-weighted pass by Olow.
Radford took it to the touchline and curled it back to the top of the six where Scibilia was diving in to volley it inside the left-post.
A handful of minutes later, it'd be Olow's turn to open his scoring account at CSUSM.
Following a poor clearance from the Warrior back-line, Olow collected the ball about 30 yards out. He looked up, took a touch, and then ripped the ball with his left boot. It knuckled and tucked into the left upper-V to make it 3-0.
CSUSM had a couple of good looks to add another in the second stanza. Farfan got free on the right side of the box, but his attempt to the far corner missed by a yard.
Then, Radford made a run down the left side and beat his man to the inside with a cut over to his right foot. He let one go with his off-foot, but the keeper saved it easily down and to his right.
Sherwood preserved the shutout with a couple of key stops. One came early in the half on leading Stan St. goal scorer Daniel Kuczynski.
Then, with about five minutes left, Ceja let off a rocket from about 15 yards out, only to be denied by Sherwood.
The Cougars sit on four points in the conference ahead of Sunday's match-up with Cal State East Bay. Kick-off is set for 2 p.m. at The Cougar Den.
