By Megan Acuna | Staff Writer
A heartbreaking goal in the final 15 minutes of the Coyote men’s soccer team’s game gave them their 4th loss of the season. The game was at home on the Coyote’s Premier Field against CSU Stanislaus.
This loss brought the Coyotes’ overall record to 4-4-7 and 4-4-5 in CCAA. With two games left in the season on Oct. 26 and 28, the Coyotes are looking to end their season on a high note against Cal State Monterey Bay at Cal State East Bay, both games are away.
The recent loss also means that the Coyotes are now out of contention for CCAA Tournament play, but with the upcoming games against Monterey Bay and East Bay the Coyotes “are attempting to earn a winning record in a season for only the fourth time since 1994” according to Mark Reinhiller, Associate AD/Media Relations.
The ‘Yotes haven’t won a game since Oct. 7 against Sonoma State, but they did tie on the 14 against Cal State Los Angeles.
This gives the men a two game losing streak.
On top of the loss, this game was the final home game of the season and the Coyotes’ two senior players, goal keeper Tanner Olinger and defender Martin Esqueda, were honored in a ceremony before the start of the game.
In the game against Stanislaus, the Coyotes outshot the Warriors 20-12 with six of those shots on goal.
Olinger had three saves during the game against the Warriors. Freshman Ricardo Velasco had a total of eight shots during the game and ended up with two shots on goal.
According Reinhiller, “Goal keepers Tanner Olinger and Jeff Salt maintain the NCAA lead in team save percentage with a sterling .886 effort in 15 games this season (65-for-76).
The pair also has combined for the third best GAA at 0.51. Olinger checks in at No .4 in GAA and No. 7 in save percentage.”
Velasco’s goal percentage for the 2012 year is .455 in relation to how many goals the team has scored so far this season. He gained five of the teams total 11 goals.
Lee Nishanian ended the game with 3 shots, Gabriel Quintero had 3 shots with one of those on goal, Demetri Burgos had two shots, and Daniel Lopez had two shots with both of them on goal.
Martin Esqueda had one shot which was also on goal and Corey Christ with 1 shot in the game.
The Coyotes had nine attempted shots in the first half of the game and came back strong in the second half with 11 additional attempts.
Their overall record last year was 7-9-2 and 6-9-2 in CCAA. Hopefully our Coyotes can tack on wins to this season’s final record.
If the men can keep their record of losses at four for the season it would tie the school record for fewest losses in a season since becoming a CCAA member in 1991.
In addition, Reinhiller says that “one more tie would establish the most ties in a season in NCAA Division II history, eclipsing the shared record with Seattle Pacific, which went 7-6-7 in 2007.
Also, should the Coyotes earn another 0-0 contest, it would mark their fifth 0-0 draw for the year, breaking the record they now share with Rockhurst (2009) and Chico State (2004).”