Follow San Francisco Men's Soccer: FACEBOOK | TWITTER
 
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—The Dons took an early lead against their South Bay rival and controlled the ball for much of the game but a Santa Clara goal in the final minutes of regulation forced overtime, making USF settle for the 1-1 tie on Sunday afternoon.
 
"That's how this conference is. You can't stop playing until the final whistle," San Francisco head coach Eddie Soto said. "I think we did a good job in keeping the ball and not allowing them some chances but we gave one up at the end… The guys fought really hard to get the result."
 
It was the last of three matches against West Coast Conference opponents that did not count towards the conference record and also the final match before the start of league play on Friday against Portland.
 
The Dons wrap up preseason play with a 6-3-2 record and two wins over top 25 teams. With a coaching staff, it also allowed the likes of Taylor Krueger, Mitchell McPartland, Kamron Crow and Jonathan Fabulich to play and gain experience.
 
"It was an opportunity for guys to get some minutes and earn some time in conference play," Soto said of the preseason. "These are all guys who have done well with their opportunity. It helps create depth."
 
With the match scoreless in the 38th minute, freshman Manny Padilla found Sixto Porras whose first attempt went off the post but he followed it with another and this one found the net to put the Dons up 1-0. It was his second of the season.
 
"Manny delivered a good ball into Sixto," Soto said. "He did well to handle it. It was a well-deserved goal."
 
In the second half, Santa Clara came out and attacked but the Dons did well to limit the Broncos' chances, holding Santa Clara to four second half shots.
 
"It took us a little while to settle things down but we started playing our game," Soto said. "They came after us, pressed us a little bit. We weathered the storm."
 
But Santa Clara finally got even in the 84th minute when Carlos Delgadillo crossed it across the box and found Matt Steurer about 10 yards out, who drilled his shot into the bottom left corner of the goal.
 
The Dons had two chances in the overtime periods to put the game away. In the 92nd minute, Miguel Aguilar took his defender one-on-one but had his shot blocked. USF had its final chance on a corner kick in the 109th minute that found the head of Bryce Kaminski but missed the target.
 
The Dons finished with 17 shots, six of which were on goal.
 
USF goalkeeper Chase Hauser picked up three saves in the match.
 
The Dons begin WCC play next weekend and will play host to Portland on Friday and Gonzaga on Sunday.