SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco State men's soccer team opened up the 2018 campaign with a 2-0 victory over visiting Academy of Art on Thursday afternoon at Cox Stadium.
The Golden Gators (1-0-0) outshot ART U (0-1-1) 9-6 and 6-3 on goal. San Francisco State's offense put the pressure on early with six shots in the first half.
The Golden Gators jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a pair of newcomers when
Crinan Dunbar connected with
Moses Gutierrez in the seventh minute for the team's first goal of the season.
Carlos Trujeque leal recovered a misplayed ball back to ART U goalkeeper Kris Jennson and made the Urban Knights pay for the mistake when he found the back of an empty net in the 24th minute.
Neither team found the back of the net in the second half. All three of ART U's shots on goal came in the second half and Peter Swinkels made all three stops for the shutout. The contest became quite physical. When all was said and done, the two teams combined for 21 fouls and four yellow cards.
Head Coach Javier Ayala-Hil: "We were focused on bringing the right mentality this first game. We worked pretty hard in the preseason but you never quite know how you're going to come out in the first few minutes. We came out, sharp, and disciplined. We moved the ball well and had our opportunities and ended up scoring."
Goalkeeper Peter Swinkels, who had three saves and the shutout: "We did really well as a unit. We were really cohesive in the beginning. It's early so we're going to make some mistakes but Aydan [Bowers], T [Tariq Pulskamp], [Jordan] Wusstig, and Miles [Burditt] were fantastic, and that's not to mention the guys who came off the bench as well."
Forward Moses Gutierrez: "The play started in the middle and I was in the right spot at the right time [for the goal]. We came out pretty pumped and scoring in the first few minutes motivated us to keep going."
The Golden Gators head to Notre Dame de Namur in nearby Belmont on Sunday, September 2 for the second of four contests on the non-conference slate. Kickoff is slated for 2 p.m. with live coverage provided by the Argonauts.
