Steffen Deetjen
Staff Writer
This past Thursday, the Dons battled against CSU Bakersfield at home and suffered a narrow loss of 2-1. The Dons were able to get ahead in the first half from a goal that was scored by midfielder freshman Sean Bowman in the 44th minute. Despite this early advantage, the Dons were unable to hold their lead and the Roadrunners were able to pull ahead by the end of the match. The Roadrunners took off 14 shots with five on target while the Dons only managed to get six shots off with two on target. Although the Dons were outshot, they managed to keep good possession in the first half, which led them to their goal in the 44th minute. Bowman was assisted by forward junior Kevin De La Torre and scored off a deflection from Bakersfield keeper.
Defensively, the Dons were put to work and managed to fend off the Roadrunners advances. Unfortunately for the Dons, senior defender Kevin Gould gave the Roadrunners a scoring opportunity from an accidental handball in the box, from which player Julian Zamora scored. Despite this slip up for Gould, he made up for it by clearing the ball out of danger to preserve the tie. By the end of regulation time, the match was still tied and went into overtime. A few minutes into overtime, the Roadrunners finalized the match in their favor when player Christian Duarte slipped the ball into the far post. The match was finalized with the score of 2-1 with the Dons losing their 7th match of the season.
On Sunday the Dons faced off against opposing team UC Davis and came out with a loss of 3-1. The Dons were able to put up a good fight with forward sophomore Bryce Kaminski scoring the one goal; however, Davis was able to dominate the match with their offense taking off 25 shots with 10 on goal. Davis was the first team to put up numbers on the scoreboard in the 26th minute. Player Lucas Mohageg was able to score off a curler from a header that made its way to the back of the net. Soon after, the Dons scored an equalizer during the 30th minute. Kaminski was assisted with a through ball from defender sophomore Manny Padilla and found himself in a one-on-one situation against Davis’ keeper and scored. By the end of the first half, the match was tied at 1-1 with equal momentum in the game from both teams.
Coming out of the second half, however, Davis picked up their momentum and put a lot of pressure on the Dons’ defense. In the 51st minute Davis scored yet again to make it a 2-1 match. Player Evan Barrett was assisted from the left and converted the pass into a second goal for Davis. To make matters worse for the Dons, junior defender Ludwing Vargas was sent off the field with a red card in the 71st minute, forcing USF to play with a man short. With this advantage, Davis scored their final goal in the last minute of the match to finalize the score at 3-1. The Dons are expected to return to the field against New Mexico on Wednesday at 6pm in their final nonconference match before the WCC.
Photo courtesy of Dons Athletics
