San Diego State University’s men’s and women’s soccer teams hosted a double-header Sunday, Oct. 20, at the SDSU Sports Desk. Both gender sides came up victorious to the delight of the hometown fans.
The Lady Aztecs kicked off the twin bill with a 4-0 win over Fresno State in a Mountain West encounter while the Aztec men followed with a 1-0 victory against San Jose State in a Western Athletic Conference matchup.
The men’s victory marked the first time in school history that SDSU had won five consecutive conference games.
Senior forward Robbie Matei (Prairie Grove, Ill.) earned accolades as the WAC Offensive Player of the Week after notching the game-winning goal in the 74th minute to snap a scoreless tie against the Spartans. The game-winning goal, which came off a corner kick feed from junior teammate Austin Brummett (Bow, N.H.), was Matei’s team-high sixth of the season and fourth game-winning goal.
“We performed really well in the second half,” SDSU head coach Ryan Hopkins said. “Our team’s trademark is resiliency. We just kept going and found a way to break through.”
San Jose State (2-2-2 in WAC, 3-6-6 overall) was unable to break through with just one shot in the first half. The Aztecs improved to 5-0-0 in WAC, 8-4-2 overall.
The SDSU women extended their current unbeaten streak to four games (two wins, two ties) after losses at Utah State (5-1) and Boise State (2-0) as part of a two-week four-game road swing that included draws at Colorado College (0-0) and Air Force (2-2).
The Lady Aztecs (4-2-2 in MW play, 6-7-3 overall) topped San Jose State, 2-1, on the preceding Thursday as coach Mike Friesen collected his MW record 191st career win. Denise Castro (San Ysidro) scored the game-winner on a PK in the 85th minute.
Emma Gaines-Ramos (Otay Ranch) registered a goal and assist in Sunday’s match to bring her to 15 points on the season with five goals and five assists. Castro closed out scoring with her team-leading eighth goal and 17th point.
SDSU goalkeeper Alexa Madueno (Woodland) picked up her school record 27th career shutout while extending her school record career saves to 386.
Getting their kicks, Part II
SDSU’s fortunes improved in both gender fields as the Lady Aztecs clawed back for a 3-3 tie in a road match at Wyoming on Oct 24 and a 1-0 win over visiting Colorado State on Oct. 27 in a pair of MW pairings while the Aztec men battled to a scoreless tie Oct. 24 at University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and edged host Grand Canyon University, 1-0, on Oct. 27 in a pair of WAC matches.
The SDSU men improved to 9-4-3 overall, 6-0-1 in WAC, while the SDSU women improved to 7-7-4 overall, 5-2-3 in conference play.
The Lady Aztecs have earned a berth in the upcoming MW championship tournament (six team qualifiers) and will play at 7 p.m. in Sunday’s quarterfinals. The MW tournament featured three rounds: Sunday (quarterfinals), Wednesday (semifinals) and next Saturday (finals).
Logan Nidy (Fresno), Trinity Coker (Poway) and Castro each scored goals — Coker and Castro in the last 12 minutes — to salvage the draw with the host Cowgirls. Madueno increased her career record save total to 387.
SDSU secured a berth in the upcoming conference tournament at the SDSU Sports Deck with the win over Colorado State. Dori Savage (Mater Dei Catholic) scored the game-winning goal in the 87th minute off a smooth pass from Castro as Madueno made eight saves to notch her school record 28th career shutout.
Madueno now has made 395 career saves. She has six shutouts this season.
SDSU honored its 11 seniors prior to the match. The Lady Aztecs concluded home field play with a perfect 5-0 record and 14-1 scoring differential against conference opponents.
Castro tops the Lady Aztecs in season scoring with 20 points (nine goals, two assists), followed by Gaines-Ramos with 16 (five goals, six assists), Coker with 10 points (three goals, four assists).
The SDSU men were out-shot 13-5 in Phoenix but managed to slip through with the win on a goal by Andre Puente (Chihuchua, Mexico) in the 14th minute. Terence Okoeguele (Cologne, Germany) started the play with a pass to Reid Fisher (Huntington Beach), whose header found Puente for the only goal of the match.
Head coach Ryan Hopkins called the victory a “huge gritty performance on the road.”
“We weren’t at our best, but the guys literally touched every blade of gras on the field to secure the win,” he said.
The ninth conference win of the season was the most for SDSU since the 2016 season. It clinched a berth in the WAC semifinals.
Against GCU, SDSU goalkeeper Djibril Domubia (Boulder, Colo.) recorded his third consecutive shutout. Against, UT-RGV, he made four saves to record his fourth shutout in six matches.
The SDSU women made one last quick road jaunt to New Mexico to engage the Lady Lobos, coming home with a 4-1 victory to nail down the No. 4 seed for the conference tournament. Save scored twice in the match while Gaines-Ramos contributed a goal and assist. Freshman Mia Lane scored her second goal of the season as South County alumni accounted for all four goals in the win.
Savage now has four goals on the season (three goals in her last two outings) to rank fifth in team scoring witht eight points while Gaines-Ramos, the team’s No. 2 scoring leader, now has six goals and seven assists on the season for 19 points (two points behind Castro).
Madueno’s nine saves increased her career total to 404. She becomes the first Lady Aztec to record 400 saves in her career.
SDSU (8-7-4, 6-2-3) will meet No. 5 UNLV in Sunday’s quarterfinal playoff match at 7 p.m. With a win, the Lady Aztecs would play at the same time on Wednesday, Nov. 6, before the championship match at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9. The entire tournament will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network.
With Thursday’s loss, New Mexico (7-6-5, 3-5-3) was eliminated from the tournament.
The SDSU men will close out regular season play Sunday at noon when they host Air Force on Senior Day. The Aztecs can clinch the regular season championship with a win or draw.
JC soccer: Lady Jags get back in the win column as monster season continues
Southwestern College defeated Palomar College, 9-1, on Oct. 25 to improve to 10-1-1 in Pacific Coast Athletic Conference play, 15-1-1 overall.
The Lady Jags had cobbled together a 15-game (14-0-1) record to kick-start the season before suffering their first loss of the 2024 campaign, 3-2, at MiraCosta on Oct. 22.
In the Oct. 25th win over the Lady Comets, Jenica Stell had three goals, Katelyne Gonzlaez had one goal and two assists, Aailia Montano had two goals and one assist, Gialli Francisco had one goal and one assist, and Camila Mendoza and Isabella Parcel each had one goal.
Southwestern’s final regular season game is Nov. 8 against Grossmont College, 6 p.m. at DeVore Stadium.
AHL Hockey: homecoming for Gulls after Canadian road trip
The San Diego Gulls return to their home roost at Pechanga Arena San Diego from an eight-day, four-game road trip to Western Canada to host the Abbortsford Canucks on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 3, at 5 p.m. in a pair of American Hockey League Pacific Division clashes.
The Gulls (2-6 on the season) finished 1-3 in the four games north of the border, opening with a 3-1 loss to host Abbortsford on Oct. 25, rebounding with a 4-1 win on Oct. 26 before dropping a pair of decisions to the host Calgary Wranglers — 4-3 on Oct. 29 and 6-2 on Halloween night, Oct. 31.
It was a mixed bag of tricks for the Southern California visitors, who showed flashes of positives and negatives and, at points, just bad luck.
The key at the AAA level is to keep development ongoing on both individual and team strengths, with each game offering a new proving ground for grading and assessment.
Yegor Sidorov scored just 2:57 into the opening period in the series opener in Abbotsford to collect this third goal in two games. Judd Caulfield picked up the assist. However, that was the only goal in the game the San Diego visitors would get.
“We didn’t look ready to play from the very first shift,” Gulls coach Matt McIlvane assessed. “We blew faceoff coverage in our zone and ice the puck twice and then we were able to bounce back, have a couple of sustained good shifts together and get on the board. Then from there, we take a tough penalty in the offensive zone that gives them the power play. As often happens when you take bad penalties, they get on the board. Really, from that point in the game onward, we struggled to find anything, any semblance of the play that we’ve seen from our group. Second period was totally outplayed and in the third there was some sort of push, but it wasn’t enough. They were simply quicker than us, more aggressive than us, on top of us, and we didn’t have our game.”
Gulls goaltender Calle Clang stopped 35 of 38 shots in the setback. “He was excellent, he gave us a chance,” McIlvane said. “The only reason it’s close and we’re playing with the goalie out at the end of the game is Calle.”
The Southern California team did a 180 degree turnaround in the rematch against the Canucks behind newcomer Jansen Harkins’ three-point night that included two power play goals. San Colangelo got the Gulls on the scoreboard with a first-period goal, assisted by Harkins. Roland McKeown, another newcomer to the San Diego lineup, scored his second goal of the season at 7:12 of the second period, assisted by two more new faces, Carson Meyer and Sidorov.
Both of Harkins’ power play goals came late in the second period.Harkins’ first power play goal came while skating with a five-on-three advantage with Ryan Carpenter, yet another newcomer, netting the assist. Harkins’ second power play goal wasassisted by Jan Mysak and Meyer. It marked the first time in Harkins’ AHL career that he had scored multiple man-power goals in a game. “It feels great,” Harkins said after the game. “I mean, that’s what I got to do for this team, is producing and be someone that we can lean on for offense.”
Oskar Dansk stopped 29 of 30 shots to record his first win between the pipes in a Gulls sweater. The lone goal by Abbotsford came on a penalty shot with 9:28 to play in the third period. It was the first penalty shot allowed by Dansk in his AHL career.
The Gulls had the misfortune to run into the hottest team in the 32-team league with a seven-game winning streak when facing off a two-game series in Calgary later in the week. The Gulls played their best game on the road trip with 45 shots in the Oct. 29 matchup, taking the host Wranglers deep into the game in a 3-3 deadlock. The Wranglers eventually scored game-winner with 2:30 to play in regulation to extend their winning streak to eight games.
Tyson Hinds, Colangelo and Mysak scored goals for San Diego, which out-shot Calgary 45-25 and killed all five Wrangler power plays. Colangelo’s goal was his team-leading fourth of the season.
“We certainly deserved a better fate I felt in in the game,” Gulls assistant coach Kris Sparre said, “Anytime you put up 45 shots with the Grade-A chances that we had. It’s unfortunate we (came) up with no points tonight, but a lot of positives.”
It’s obviously a blueprint for future games.
“They have a good goalie (California native Devin Cooley), they’re a hot team,” Colangelo offered. “But I think the way we played the first 12 or 14 minutes, we really played right and got the puck in their zone, put it north, hard, direct game, hunted the puck. I think that’s probably our best first period. But when you don’t win, it’s hard to have more moral victories. But I think that that’s something that we can look back on in a few weeks, few months, and build off of.”
The final game on the road trip got away from the visitors early on, ending in disappointing fashion.
The hosts scored first on an own goal deflection past Dansk by the Gulls and later added a power play goal for a quick 2-0 lead. The Wranglers made it 3-1 following a goal by Colangelo in the second period. Meyer scored a consolation goal late in the third period.
Colangelo moved into the lead among league rookies with five goals and tied for second with eight points. He has scored goals in his last three consecutive games for a high water mark in his young AHL career.
Pavol Regenda recorded his team-leading sixth assist of the season while Harkins, Carpenter and Nikita Nesterenko also registered assists.
McIlvane had mixed thoughts on the match-ups in Calgary as the Wranglers moved to 9-0 in their last nine games following a season-opening loss.
“We felt good about our game on Tuesday,” the Gulls bench boss said. “We didn’t leave with points, but we did enough great things that you repeat that effort and you’re going to win a lot of hockey games and (on Thursday), when we went down two early, it got a little quiet on the bench and then we fought back a bit in the second. We had opportunities when it was 2-1 to even the score. Really from there, it was all Calgary, and I give them credit. They were quicker to pucks, they won a lot of battles tonight and from our side that that’s not the way that we expect to play.”
Calgary (9-1) tops the Pacific Division with 18 points, followed by the surprising San Jose Barracuda with 12 points (6-1 record after finishing last in the division in 2023-24) in second place. Abbotsford is in third place with a 4-3-0-1 record and nine points followed by the Tucson Roadrunners in fourth place with a 4-4 record and eight standings points.
Bakersfield is 2-1-2-1 (two wins, two overtime losses, one shootout loss) in fifth place with seven points while the Colorado Eagles occupy sixth place with a 2-3-0-1 record and five points. Coachella Valley (2-3), Henderson (2-5) and San Diego (2-6) are all tied with four standings points — one point arrears of Colorado and three points behind Bakersfield. The Ontario Reign (1-4) brings up the rear in the 10-team division with two points.
It’s still early in the AHL season with new players getting to know their teammates’ tendencies and coaching game strategies. The Gulls have been outscored 30-22 in eight games. By comparison, Calgary owns a 32-20 goal-differential in 10 games while San Jose had outscored opponents 35-13 in seven games. At the other end, Ontario has been outscored 22-8 in five games.
Bakersfield and Coachella Valley have each scored 14 goals — lowest in the division.
Clang is 1-4 in five game appearances with a 2.94 GAA and 0.895 save percentage while Danski is 1-2 with a 4.64 GAA and 0.869 save percentage. The Gulls are allowing an average of 5.83 goals per game.
Cooley, from Los Gatos, keys Calgary with a 6-1 record, 1.82 GAA and 0.946 save percentage. Waltteri Ignatjew is 3-0 with a 2.34 GAA and 0.927 save percentage. The Wranglers are allowing 1.97 goals per game.
Brandon Halverson (2-1) of Syracuse leads the league with a 0.34 GAA and 0.985 save percentage.
Calgary’s Kory Kerins (nine goals, two assist) and Walter Duehr (six goals, five assists) co-lead the league’s scorers with 11 points.
College hockey: Aztecs still grounded in WCHL play
The San Diego State University men’s ice hockey team remains winless in its first year of Western Collegiate Hockey League play but not for a lack of effort. The Aztecs fell to 0-8 in league play following a pair of setbacks — 6-4 and 5-1 — to host Colorado State University last weekend.
SDSU received two goals from Lucas Bellig and one each from Marcus Kim and Ayden Moretti in the series opener. The Aztecs trailed 3-2 after the opening period but fell behind 6-2 after 40 minutes before rallying with two goals in the third period to fall short.
The Rams out-shot the Aztecs 39-32. SDSU remained strong in penalty killing by allowing just one of six power play opportunities while scoring on one of three while on the man-advantage. Liam Dee allowed five goals on 25 shots while Brody Hsiao stopped all 13 shots he faced in relief duty.
Bellig had a big night, one of the best in his Aztec career with a four-point night (two goals, two assists) while Sean Devaney picked up two assists.
Nolan Conrad and Ben Hollingsworth each earned one helper in the loss. The goal was the first for Kim on the season.
SDSU was out-shot 42-28 in the rematch and trailed 5-0 through two periods. Conrad scored the lone goal for the Aztecs on a power play at 16:46 of the third period, assisted by Moretti. Hsiao, playing the full game, made 37 saves on 42 shots. Each team scored one power play goal.
SDSU (4-8 overall) returns home for a two-game weekend series against Canisius University (8-1). The teams will play Friday at Poway Ice (5:30 p.m. fac-off) and Saturday at the Kroc Center Ice Arena (8:30 p.m. face-off).
Bellig has moved into second place in Aztec scoring with seven points (three goals, four assists) while Kim is now tied for third place with six points (one goal, five assists) with teammate Luke Desmarais (two goals, four assists). Arizonan Cameron Ferraz continues to top SDSU in scoring with 11 points (five goals, six assists).
Dee is 2-4 with a 5.39 GAA and 0.879 save percentage while Hsiao is 1-2 with a 6.97 GAA and 0.850 save percentage.
