Men's Soccer Handed Loss, Tournament Berth
October 28, 2015 | Men's Soccer
IRVINE, Calif. --- The Anteaters' fate tonight all fell on one hand as Cal State Fullerton slid home the match's only goal on a penalty kick for the 1-0 win Wednesday night in Anteater Stadium.
A bounding ball in the box in the 70th minute was ruled a hand ball awarding CSUF (10-7-1, 5-3-1) a penalty kick Julian Okai would convert breaking the scoreless draw.
UC Irvine (5-10-3, 3-5-1) clawed back pushing into the offensive third, but numerous scoring opportunities fell inches from connecting leaving the 'Eaters defeated, 1-0.
The good news coming from the night came from Northridge as CSUN dropped UC Riverside, 2-1, helping lock up tournament spots for the Matadors and Anteaters.
It also means Saturday night's match in Anteater Stadium between UCI and CSUN will essentially be for the No. 2 seed in the tournament and the chance to host the opening round match.
An Anteater win pulls them even with CSUN with 13 points, and by winning both matches in the season series, UCI would be awarded the tiebreaker and the No. 2 seed. Any other result lands the Anteaters at No. 3 leaving them to travel to Cal Poly or UCSB for its first round match.
Elliot Farmer performed well in net letting nothing from the run of play by and collecting six saves. The biggest came in the 43rd minute just before halftime.
The Titans charged upfield, and Brandon West found himself all alone on the left side of the box. His sharp shot towards the far post was denied by the left foot of Farmer to turn back the opportunity and keep the match scoreless at the half.
On the other end, David Rodriguez Elias needed to make just one save to earn the shutout. His defenders came to the rescue on two occasions blocking would-be goals just above the goalline.
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