SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- The Anteaters opened the season with a tie at San Diego's Torero Stadium, 0-0, but not without its late-night theatrics.
The match bled into overtime without a goal in the first 90 minutes, and it looked like the game was about to head to a second 10-minute overtime period before San Diego (0-0-1) drew a foul in the box with 40 seconds to go in the first period. Miguel Berry stepped up to the spot and ripped a shot to keeper
Greg Patenaude's right, but the redshirt senior keeper dove correctly and punched aside the would-be game-winner.
The match continued on, but still no goals were found, and the season opened for each side with a 0-0 draw.
Patenaude notched his first career shutout with the results stopping four shots, a career high. USD's keeper Matt Wiher stopped three in his end of the shutout along with a save from his backline.
USD held the early advantage with six of its 12 shots in the first half including the first four shots and three corner kicks of the night. The 'Eaters (0-0-1) had four shots on frame from four different players, one of which was
Alvaro Quezada who led the squad with three total shots.
The Anteaters extended its unbeaten streak to six against USD (4-0-2) while ending its short, two-game losing streak on opening day. The 'Eaters head out to the state of Florida to play UCF on Monday, Aug. 27 with first kick set for 4:00 p.m. on the West Coast.
NOTES: Five Anteaters made their UCI debut in the match...
Darren Hamilton and
Jalani Ambrose each had their first after transferring in the offseason...freshman
Michael Orozco made his collegiate debut starting on the backline...redshirt freshmen
Ben Reveno and
Axel Adler each made collegiate debuts off the bench for 16 and 6 minutes, respectively...sophomore
Lawrence Yamaguchi cracked the starting XI for the first time in his collegiate career...
Christian Gutierrez made his first appearance since 2016 coming in off the bench after missing the entirety of 2017 with an ACL tear...
Greg Patenaude's PK save is the second of his career, he also stopped one in the 52nd minute of his UCI debut against Northern Kentucky...UCI is now 2-3-1 all-time when opening the season on the road...