SAN FRANCISCO — For the first time since 1978, the San Francisco State men's soccer team is headed to the postseason. The Gators held on for a 1-0 victory over Sonoma State on Saturday at Cox Stadium.
"I think it's a great accomplishment for the program. Last year, I came in right before the season so it was pretty difficult to implement the culture we wanted for the program," said San Francisco State Head Coach
Javier Ayala-Hil. "Here we are a full year later, and yes it came down to the last day, but we persevered and had good resilience. We got the result that we wanted and we're looking forward to the match on Tuesday.
The match had all of the trappings of a postseason match — a large crowd came out to watch as both teams fought in a do-or-die matchup for a berth into the CCAA Championships. Both teams also celebrated Senior Day, with the Gators honoring senior
Andy Altamirano,
KJ Ahlo,
Sam Gebremiche,
Nigus Solomon,
Ranier Plantinos,
Jesse Rodriguez, and
Jonny Villeda.
In the end, SF State (11-4-2/6-4-2 CCAA) was victorious thanks to junior
Aydan Bowers' goal in the 48th minute. Solomon's free kick from the left side entered the right side of the box just above the goal box, where Bowers rose above the defense and flicked it in to the far post for his third score of the year.
From there, the Gators defense clamped down. Both teams had six shots on goal in the match but SF State freshman goalkeeper
Peter Swinkels stopped all six balls that came his way.
Final seedings and game times will be confirmed and announced by the CCAA, though it appears as though the Gators will be headed to UC San Diego on Tuesday, Oct. 31. Check
sfstategators.com and
@sfstate_gators on Twitter for updates.
