Box Score
SAN MARCOS, Calif. – The Cal State San Marcos men's soccer team earned its first win in two weeks with a 2-0 shutout of visiting Bethesda on Tuesday afternoon at Mangrum Soccer Field.
Eric Lopez scored early to put the Cougars ahead, Zach Sheppard made a pair of point-blank saves to keep the Flames off the board, and Sullivan Tobin put an exclamation point on the win in the 89th minute to help the Cougars eclipse last year's win-total with their seventh victory of the season (7-3-2).
Sophomore center-mid Yuki Hata contributed assists on both goals.
CSUSM came out firing early on, as Dustin Scibilia and Scott Rice forced saves by BUC keeper HyeoCkjin Choi.
In the 25th minute, Hata collected the ball in his offensive end on the right side. Seemingly in no-man's land with three defenders closing in, Hata played a clever pass five yards behind the last defender and sprinted onto it. With the trio beat, Hata curled in cross to the penalty spot, where Lopez side-footed it inside the left post.
Diego Fontes nearly made it 2-0 minutes later, as he attempted roofing a shot from a sharp angle inside the left side of the six. However, the ball careened off the crossbar, clanged off the post and bounced innocently back into Choi's grasp as the Flames averted the danger.
Rice would hit the post moments before halftime as the Cougars went into the break up just a goal despite placing eight shots on frame.
"It was a tale of two halves. We were really good in the first half and unlucky not to have three goals. But, that's soccer," said CSUSM head coach Ron Pulvers. "Bethesda did a much better job in the second half with their energy. We were sitting on a 1-0 lead and they were attacking, but I thought we did a good job defensively of keeping them at-bay."
Mingyu Wee helped the Flames assert themselves in the second half, as the striker continually pressured CSUSM center backs Richie Kaiser and Mason Grimes.
In the 70th, BUC played a cross from the left side that drew Kaiser and Grimes both to Wee. The ball bounced to the far side of the goal after a collision between the three, and Daniel Carrillo collected it all alone. All Carrillo needed to do was slot it calmly to the corner, but Sheppard came out hard to close the angle before pushing Carrillo's eight-yard, point-blank shot aside.
Five minutes from time, Wee freed himself from Dustin Scibilia and Grimes on the right side. He got into the box and fired a ball to the far upper-V. Sheppard leapt out of his crouch to punch the ball high and wide.
As the game went end-to-end and stretched out both teams, Hata played a through ball intended for Rice in Bethesda's final third. Rice dummied the ball to Tobin on the right edge of the box and the midfielder finished it to the back post to make it 2-0 with less than 90 seconds left.
"We were really white collar with possession in the first half and very blue collar with our defensive work in the second half. Good teams are able to play any way the game is asking for," said Pulvers.
CSUSM has now won one more game than it did in 2012, when the Cougars went 6-7-3.
The Cougars have a 10-day break before taking on La Sierra in Riverside on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 4:00 p.m.
