The Gators were decked out in their pink socks as tribute to the Project Pink match, where they had set up containers for donations for breast cancer research.
“We just decided to do a community service to recognize cancer research,” said head coach Joe Hunter. “We have a couple of kids on the team who have had individuals in their families with breast cancer, as well as my mom and my deceased wife who also had breast cancer. We just hoped to raise a little bit of money if we can”
Their fancy socks didn’t help them play any better. It was the same old story for the men’s soccer team Friday afternoon, with the Gators losing 3-1 in a game where they were superior for most of the 90 minutes.
Once again, SF State out-shot and outplayed their opponents but fell victim to some sloppy goals.
“It’s a lack of communication,” midfielder Luis Fidel Medina said. “That’s how it happens in this league, we’ve lost a couple games with cheap goals like that.”
The Cal State East Bay Pioneers scored their first goal in a quick haze, with a well-placed header by an unmarked Kellen Crow, in a perfect example of the miscommunication that the Gators have had all season.
Despite the adversity of being down a goal at home, and staring down the barrel of another loss, the Gators retained possession, and threatened with a flurry of over-the-top balls that were not quite converted by their forwards.
The possession came to fruition when a cross from midfielder Robert Gilbert found fellow midfielder Jose Monje far post, and his header fell to defender Sam Merritt who volleyed it from just outside the 6-yard box for the second goal of the season for the winger.
“I definitely felt like in the second half we were definitely going to get that goal,” Merritt said. “When we finally got it and our energy was up, so when we gave up a soft goal like that kind of put the team down, and then the game sort of died off.”
The Gators allowed two goals to sneak by: one by Arthur Ethel that clanked off the post before Ethel cleaned it up, and a long-distance shot from Javier Martin that goalkeeper Anthony Rodriguez couldn’t handle.
The Gators move on from this four game home stand still looking for their first win in CCAA Conference play, with their next match coming against Cal Poly Pomona in Hayward.
“They’re working hard and they’re battling but we just don’t have a ton of experience out on the pitch right now,” Hunter said. “What it is now is they see another guy go down, and its crept into their minds that we’re not good enough right now to win, and we’ve got to get that attitude out of them.”