SAN FRANCISCO — It was a wild ending to Senior Day on Sunday as the San Francisco State women's soccer team came back from behind to hand the Chico State Wildcats their first loss of the season, 2-1 at Cox Stadium. In doing so, the Gators punched their ticket to the postseason for the first time since 2010.
That 2010 team won the CCAA North Division that season, back when the conference was divided by North and South squads, and went on to win the CCAA Championships and make an NCAA Division II tournament appearance.
Prior to the match, the Gators honored their five graduating seniors: Domenique Banta, Spenser Jaye, Ally King, Madison Messier, and Marriah Perez.
The Wildcats (8-1-5/7-1-2 CCAA) jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute. Susanna Garcia's shot from the left side was perfectly placed to the far post and out of the reach of goalkeeper
Nicki Rucki. They nearly doubled the lead a couple of minutes later but Devon Morones' shot hit off the right post. For the Gators (9-5-2/7-3-2 CCAA), Perez attempted a shot in the 20th minute and Messier attempted a shot in the 33rd minute but both were saved.
San Francisco State came close with Ally King's header in the 53rd minute that was saved and Quincy Kaplan's follow went high. Then, in the 55th minute, the Gators played a ball deep into the box that deflected off of the center official and Tami Kwong's attempt was flagged offside. Garcia nearly netted her second goal of the day in the 60th minute after a corner kick that the Gators failed to clear but Rucki was able to make the stop. The Gators kept the pressure on and finally came through in the 74th minute. A ball played into the box deflected off of Tami Kwong, who passed to Monique Ponce. Kwong circled behind Ponce, who passed it back and Kwong beat the off-balance goalkeeper as well as a defender who couldn't clear the ball off the line in time.
The Wildcats fired off the next five shots before the improbable happened. A Wildcats foul in the 89th minute around midfield set up a free kick for
Janessa Staab. The sophomore defender played the ball into the middle of the box, where it pinballed around.
Angie Gonzalez played the ball back to
Niko Baila, who kicked it high over everybody's heads and off the crossbar, and into the net. The junior's first career goal gave the Gators the 2-1 advantage with 47 seconds remaining and time expired before the Wildcats could muster another shot.
During their conference bye week, the Gators will look to stay sharp with a contest at UC Merced (NAIA) on Saturday, October 27 at 1 p.m. Live stats and video will be available provided by the Bobcats and in-game updates will be available on Twitter at
@sfstate_wsoc.
While the Gators won't need to scoreboard watch quite as closely now, they will have to wait to see how the CCAA bracket shakes out, and whether the Gators will earn homefield advantage. The first round of the CCAA Championships will take place on Tuesday, October 30.
