After losing its first game at home to No. 3 ranked Cal State Stanislaus Friday, the SF State Gators suffered another loss in dramatic fashion in overtime at the hands of the Cal State East Bay Pioneers, 2-1.
After 90 minutes of soccer, the Gators went into overtime in hopes of scoring a golden goal that would give them a hard-fought victory. But just as time was expiring on the clock, with three seconds left, Pioneer forward Megan Ravenscroft drilled the game-winning goal that deflated an entire stadium and Gators team.
“Our legs are probably tired and stuff, but I don’t think we should’ve lost this game,” said midfielder and junior Lauren Hayano. “It’s a tough loss, just a tough game to lose. We outshot them by a lot, but we just couldn’t put it away.”
During the first half, the Gators controlled possession of the ball and pressed the action, but couldn’t find the net. SF State had 24 shots on goal while the Pioneers had 14.
The defense had another stellar performance in the backfield, anchored by Molly Schuster, Sarah Guensler, Laura Shea and Stephanie Vannie. The midfield also did enough to win the 50/50 balls, but could not set up their forwards for a goal.
“I think it’s the connection between the lines, between the midfielders and forwards,” said assistant coach Robin Hart. “You’re always going to be a little bit more beat up on the Sunday game but we need to be able to put 90 minutes together.”
The Gators and Pioneers went to halftime all tied up. However, the Pioneers came out of halftime with an intensity that sparked a team that was coming into Sunday with little offense.
Pioneers forward, Megan Ravenscroft scored the first goal of the match at the 51′ mark from outside of the box with an unstoppable shot that gave the Pioneers the lead over the Gators.
The match took a turn in the last 25 minutes as the midfielders and forwards pressed the action once again. Midfielder Elizet Ceja scored the equalizer on a beautiful header that paralyzed goalkeeper, Briana Scholtens, at the 79′ mark from Laura Shea.
The team has five days to prepare a game plan for its next opponent and physically recover from the two games it played during the weekend.
“It goes back to recovery for the players that have played a lot,” said Hart. “It’s regrouping. Each day is a new day. It’s going to be a tough week of practice, just getting after it again and working on a couple things that we thought we could’ve done better this entire weekend, and then we head out to Monterey Bay.”
Sunday’s match against the Pioneers is another loss against a CCAA team. SF State’s next four games will be against CCAA teams.
The Gators next match will be Friday in Seaside, Calif. against the Cal State Monterey Bay Otters, the team that beat No. 3 ranked Cal State Stanislaus Sunday 1-0.
